"Beyond" By Mary McDonald

After "Childhood Wonder" by Marissa Martin

“Susan Amantha Cottonwood was a little girl who was always good --
When the sun shone.”
 
I begged my father for this story every night
It sparkled and shrieked wool 
afghan into fantasy.  
 
This is a story creature,
repeated, repeated.
Psammead, sand fairy, sphinx, dragon--
words travel with us (for life) 
become our yarns
sparkling rough
dull   rich
with impossibility.
 
Unravelled, revealed
textured, re-texted.
Threads read
fabric fabricated
form
girls.
Inform girls
to say please
to please
to smile.
You are welcome,
here.
 
Psammead, sand fairy, dragon, sphinx --
Stay with me this night.
I want to look in your eyes
know your stories that
take me beyond
childhood.
Should we fly, or leap or slither?
 
But.
rewind, remix, repeat, repeat.
Fabricate threaded
revelations.
Please inform your
Welcome
wider.
I will fly and leap and slither, then.

Quote from Susan and the Rain by Madye Lee Chastain (pg. 145) Whitman Publishing included Susan and the Rain and Nellie in its 1944 collection, The Big Big Story Book. (republished 1965)

Mary McDonald is a writer who has settled in the London community, after living in West Africa, Indonesia, and Toronto. Mary is a graduate student of the Master’s of Educational Technology program of UBC. She has been previously published in The New Quarterly and her play, “13 inches of closet space” will be given a public reading in April.