The Robber Bridegroom

The bird caged inside my head sang
How we don't know what we know!
How we know what we don't know!
as I followed the trail that led to
the deepest part of the forest where
I came upon a house made of
shifting walls and shadows, circled
by dead trees full of ravens.
If this is a dream, it's one that might
kill you! sang the bird as I crossed
the threshold to drift through airless rooms
echoing with ghost-voices
where silvery rats eyed me —
sentinels standing their ground.
Hide! Flee! Save yourself! Save me!
cried the voice of an old woman
as my bridegroom came in, flanked by
men bearing a maiden they forced
to drink yellow wine, green,
then black wine, until her heart burst.
So they became festive as they
sliced her on the table, her ringed
finger flying into my lap
near my own ring finger, as I
crouched behind ripped, bloody curtains.
As if everything I saw there
I had already seen, my face
stayed calm and unchanged. At midnight,
I stepped over the dead-drunk bodies
and walked the trail back to my home.
Our wedding day. I welcomed
my bridegroom, and when the time came
to give the toast, raised my glass high
and spoke of a house lost in the forest,
and a maiden unvoiced by fear as —
("But my darling, it was a dream…') —
she drank down glass after glass,
her lips stained green and black and yellow.
Then I spoke of how red wine spilled
from her limbs as the robbers cut
and were festive, severing
the ring finger from her white hand.
"But my darling … only a dream.'
Now all my guests were smiling and
pointing their ring fingers at him.
I held my own hand out, pointing
her finger straight at him while
smiling deeply into his eyes:
"Darling, it was just a dream.'
Now he shrank into himself
as if trying to unmake himself.
Only his heart did not burst.
Then he came out of his dream
and contemplated the day, long since,
he chose to be ruled by it.
The wine on the table was the crimson
of blood and pain. I drank deep
then broke the glass against the hearth,
ready to choose peace, have done with
all this — to follow rumours of joy.