R S Gwynn

(b. 1948)

Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins

Good Catholic girl, she didn't mind the cleaning. All of her household chores, at first, were small And hardly labors one could find demeaning. One's duty was one's refuge, after all. And if she had her doubts at certain moments And once confessed the to the Father, she Was instantly referred to texts in Romans And Peter's First Epistle, chapter III. Years passed. More sinful every day, the Seven Breakfasted, grabbed their pitchforks, donned their horns, And sped to contravene the hopes of heaven, Sowing the neighbors' lawns with tares and thorns. She set to work. Pride's wall of looking glasses Ogled her dimly, smeared with prints of lips; Lust's magazines lay strewn, bare tits and asses Weighted by his "devices" - chains, cuffs, whips. Gluttony's empties covered half the table, Mingling with Avarice's cards and chips, And she'd been told to sew a Bill Blass label Inside the blazer Envy'd bought at Gyps. She knelt to the cold master bathroom floor as If a petitioner before the Pope, Retrieving several pairs of Sloths's soiled drawers, A sweat-sock and a cake of hairy soap. Then, as she wiped the Windex from the mirror She noticed, and the vision made her cry, How much she'd grayed and paled, and how much clearer Festered the bruise of Wrath beneath her eye. "No poisoned apple needed for this Princess," She murmured making X's with her thumb. A car door slammed, bringing her to her senses: Ho-hum. Ho-hum. It's home from work we come. And she was out the window in a second, In time to see a Handsome Prince, of course, Who, in spying her distressed condition, beckoned For her to mount (What else?) his snow-white horse. Impeccably he spoke. His smile was glowing. So debonair! So charming! And so Male. She took a step, reversed and without slowing Beat it to St. Anne's where she took the veil.

Taken from No Word of Farewell: Selected Poems 1970-2000 (copyright Story Line Press).
You can purchase the book online at www.storylinepress.com.

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R S Gwynn