Dorothy

(2014)

 

You can fall in love with anyone:

a fool, a shell, a coward—

and run along all right as rain 

until the clouds are long lost shadows

 

I wandered far from home that way, 

on handsome strangers’ arms, 

and plodded on as we got hammered 

on all the fallen fruit we gathered

 

Then I awoke from poison slumber,

though admittedly hungover,

better, faster, smarter, tougher—

a wiser, more courageous lover

 

I’d never choose to click my heels,

even if that tale were true.

Still, I dare to dream sometimes

of Dorothy before the storm

 

“Dorothy” first appeared in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” Issue #3 of NonBinary Review