III. On exile or pilgrimage; concerning dreams that beginners have

by Lauren Eggert-Crowe

-after Elise Hunter

A snake
wants inside. He slithers

into your window and becomes
a black-haired

man in a black jacket.
Answer my questions

and if you get one
wrong, he marks

your forearm with sugar,
he marks you with circles

of the bad candy. You are mine
forever, he says and prepares

the salt-shackles.
But you run

into the hydrangea
street, knock wildly

on doors. The neighbor opens
and takes your place. It is always

the same neighbor.
She always takes your place.

 

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About the Author:

Lauren Eggert-Crowe was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania and now lives in Los Angeles, where she is the reviews editor of TROP. She has written for Salon, The Rumpus, The Nervous Breakdown, and L.A. Review of Books. Her poetry appears in Sixth Finch, Maintenant, Interrupture, Puerto Del Sol, DIAGRAM, Terrain.org, So To Speak, Alligator Juniper, OccupyWriters, and We Are So Happy To Know Something, among others. Her poetry has also been set to music, in “Diary of a Black Widow,” a multisectional song setting by contemporary composer Christopher Pratorius, which premiered with the Santa Cruz Chamber Players in 2010.

She is the author of two poetry chapbooks: In The Songbird Laboratory, from Dancing Girl Press, and The Exhibit, forthcoming from Hyacinth Girl Press, Winter 2013. For eleven years, she published the literary feminist ‘zine, Galatea’s Pants, which Microcosm Publishing named one of the Top 100 ‘Zines by Women, and which was featured in the textbook, Girls’ Studies by Elline Lipkin. Galatea’s Pants was included in the San Jose Museum of Art’s “Art of ‘Zines” exhibit in 2004 and can be found in many ‘zine libraries across the country.