wolf, red riding hood, red, political

WOLF

a wolf stopped me
on the way
to Red Riding Hood

redirected me
confiscated my
wolfsbane

showed me a flag
red as menstrual blood

told me
he hoped I would not
be seeing anything. socialist
or revolutionary in it

bemoaned the fact
that everything today
gets cloaked,
gets camouflaged

hides
in sheep’s clothing

gave me
a quick Turing Test
seemed
to be satisfied
since
provided me with a link
to his You Tube video
in which
he laments
the theft of
his mythology

both as regard little pigs
and nubiles in
big teeth
non-
Grandmother
vermillion underwear

and set up, a trap
if ever
he saw one

real Roald Dahl, pure
imagination

slipping on a cave boat ride
into avant-gard horror
(no tunnel of love
episode this

too Dali to
delight us

and so he complained
and so he raged

fancying me as meal
and me fancying
a chic wolf skin

proving my parents wrong
when drumming in
talk with strangers means
Moors murders

and for writers hesitating on
their first rung

no hope
for turning
type into
character

and tale to tell
that talks old tropes

the trick being
one of mesmerizing