all sad girls are beautiful

by: Cynthia Mayhew

My mothers mother
Was an evil strega bitch
Hissing like a spider crab
She would shake her head
“Tsk Tsk”
The scorpion claw that was her mind
Always looking for a pricked payout
Even now, memoried bitter breath – chills me
Crawling fingers-nicotine
We moved away from her when I was three
To my grandfather’s island
Bluffs, conchs, sand dollars, shoals
They welcomed us home
When she came to “check on us”
Her black bomb muffler exploding
I had hid under the bed
Her heels clicking and clacking
Yellow fingers bleeding, snapping
Neurotoxic Countess
Venomous strega snake
“Mom, can’t nana leave you alone?”
I wondered about her childhood
Somewhere deep in my mind
I pictured her squishing ants
Acrid insect spite
I think her cracker face smiled
a little on the ends
where she once was something
good
long before
Acrid insect Spite
In a born bitch childhood