J. Bailey Hutchinson
Magical Girl
for Mami Tomoe, beheaded
Given ribbon, I make musket.
And this is no easy thing to build:
the ramrod, breech, the powder-filled
bladder, channels of oil and flint.
All this mustered with folded legs
and jaw-grit before dinner, meeting
my own eye in the cat’s. Sulfur or opal.
Mortar or knee-sock. How to be a girl
and also bury bullets: sign a contract. I wonder
what a witch I might be, if in that world
I might at least have a saucer for my tea.
With sugar. Jarred honeycomb. I
didn’t know name-on-the-line meant
the kind of forever that gathers
each vessel and organ for pickling.
Heats each leg’s nervous gristle
so, even in death, I’d stand rifle-cocked.
God of this body, you gave me
ribbon. I asked for please, an ungiving
thing. So I might do this
on my own. So I might
walk home at night.
for Mami Tomoe, beheaded
Given ribbon, I make musket.
And this is no easy thing to build:
the ramrod, breech, the powder-filled
bladder, channels of oil and flint.
All this mustered with folded legs
and jaw-grit before dinner, meeting
my own eye in the cat’s. Sulfur or opal.
Mortar or knee-sock. How to be a girl
and also bury bullets: sign a contract. I wonder
what a witch I might be, if in that world
I might at least have a saucer for my tea.
With sugar. Jarred honeycomb. I
didn’t know name-on-the-line meant
the kind of forever that gathers
each vessel and organ for pickling.
Heats each leg’s nervous gristle
so, even in death, I’d stand rifle-cocked.
God of this body, you gave me
ribbon. I asked for please, an ungiving
thing. So I might do this
on my own. So I might
walk home at night.
The Great Saiyagirl
for Videl Satan, who “during the series Dragonball Z, had five different hairstyles.” 1
In ninth grade I cannot not do a pullup. Body like
mango I. Droop from the ledge. How do I heave
me up, I think, with arms like mop-handle, how
do I hold anything dear. When learning to fly,
Gohan says use your energy and just be careful,
so Videl packs into herself and chins-up,
thinking, as I might, what energy. I imagine:
straightened spine, the weave unlocking to pour
milkwhite warm from the insides-of, pooling toes
& upwards. Why do I need to be careful. Were you
careful.
*
Videl is the only human woman capable of flight.
She also breaks the neck of a man eight times
her weight, but he reknits like a zip-gag
& hatchets her into the earth, super-
ellipsing her head with a boot. I am made
to watch her crown blacken. Her face
an opening berry. Her freshly shaved
head like grass underfoot.
*
Am I meant to say I love to be the small woman of a big man--
which is to say I love to be brung the meat--
thigh as thick as a trunk, boat-heavy haunch--
when really I don’t want or need for help but I do but I don’t but I--
When Videl inches into the air, she is--
a stable edge. Like, I think, horizon.
She cuts
a planet from her feet.
1 Son Goku had the same hairstyle for 508 episodes. I’m just saying. That’s not in his Wikipedia article.
for Videl Satan, who “during the series Dragonball Z, had five different hairstyles.” 1
In ninth grade I cannot not do a pullup. Body like
mango I. Droop from the ledge. How do I heave
me up, I think, with arms like mop-handle, how
do I hold anything dear. When learning to fly,
Gohan says use your energy and just be careful,
so Videl packs into herself and chins-up,
thinking, as I might, what energy. I imagine:
straightened spine, the weave unlocking to pour
milkwhite warm from the insides-of, pooling toes
& upwards. Why do I need to be careful. Were you
careful.
*
Videl is the only human woman capable of flight.
She also breaks the neck of a man eight times
her weight, but he reknits like a zip-gag
& hatchets her into the earth, super-
ellipsing her head with a boot. I am made
to watch her crown blacken. Her face
an opening berry. Her freshly shaved
head like grass underfoot.
*
Am I meant to say I love to be the small woman of a big man--
which is to say I love to be brung the meat--
thigh as thick as a trunk, boat-heavy haunch--
when really I don’t want or need for help but I do but I don’t but I--
When Videl inches into the air, she is--
a stable edge. Like, I think, horizon.
She cuts
a planet from her feet.
1 Son Goku had the same hairstyle for 508 episodes. I’m just saying. That’s not in his Wikipedia article.
J. Bailey Hutchinson is a poet from Memphis, Tennessee. She is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she works on The Arkansas International literary magazine, co-coordinates the Open Mouth Reading Series, and makes lots of pickles. Hutchinson has work in Front Porch, Hobart, LIT magazine, and more. Full publication and contact info is available at www.jbaileyhutchinson.com