Thank You Wolf
Mother was wrong
love these flowers found
in the forest off the path
I know you’ll eat me
and grandmother too
there’s no
other way
but I’ll have
the last laugh won’t I
they’ll find me
by my red cap
but you knew that
saw it coming before
you arrived at grandmother’s
Oh my love—what big teeth you have
what big eyes
I couldn’t see
until
in your belly
made me whole again
Grandmother and I
didn’t want to leave
but the hunter was knocking
he was me
ready to skin you blind:
I’ll lie in this bed you’ve made
and show what these teeth
can do too.
Michael Alcée
Michael Alcée’s work has appeared in Black Iris, Eunoia Review, and Inflectionist Review, among others. In addition to being a poet, he is a psychologist and author of Therapeutic Improvisation (Norton, 2022) and The Upside of OCD (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024).