Fake Mother

Glaring, daring him to stare into her eyes. They’re stern, they burn terror of an evil kind. His fibs, she twirls like a baton, his feeble lies. This stepmother, a fairytale witch, finds ways to wreak havoc when her husband’s away. Elementary child, small but wise, inflames her, releases creatures uncaged - she goes cray-cray. As fake mother cracks, her vibrato bum concurs. 1/4/2020 From “Off With Their Heads,” by Maria Tater, in the oldest version of “The Three Gifts,” a boy asks that when his stepmother glares at him, “her bum might then let go, and crack like roaring fire.”