Erasure of "The Twelve Brothers"
            ~for Hillary

by Suzanne Allen


Once upon a time a girl sat and mourned entire days until she unlocked the doom and went out into the woods where it was darkest. The time passed quickly. She had a good heart. Everything had happened in the evening. The bewitched little house had belonged to them. They kissed, then agreed, sat at the table eating. He continued speaking—I know more than you do. So she went into the woods. Wild game, deer, birds, and doves lived happily with her. There were twelve lilies all for nothing and a large greyhound asking her to become his wife. She neither spoke nor laughed, secretly convinced she was innocent.


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"Erasure of 'The Twelve Brothers'" is part of Suzanne Allen's new collection We Wash Our Hands (Write It! She Said, September 1, 2021)

Suzanne Allen is a teacher from Southern California. She holds an MFA from the CSU in Long Beach, and her poems have appeared widely in journals, magazines, and anthologies, both in print and online, some have even won awards, but this past year-and-a half, the newest ones have mostly only been written on postcards and mailed near and far; not coincidentally, her first full-length collection, We Wash Our Hands, is newly available on Amazon.com. She also has two chapbooks: verisimilitude from corrupt press (2011) and Little Threats from Picture Show Press (2018).