Rebecca D. Martin
Little Red Riding Hood Is Done with Gaslighting
Your rumination pathway, which is really a fear pathway, runs like a Slip ’n Slide through time: one minute, you’re at the top of the yard; next, crashing into a tree. You think you know whose woods these are, but at the bottom, the grandmother’s wolfish maw. What big eyes she has, but yours are closed. You arrive riddled with bumps and bruises. The worst shade of yellow. Those hidden rocks the shape of teeth.
Even 80’s kids had tender skin. You are not a kid. These woods are yours. You imagine your neural pathways running green, grass clogging the through-path like something sentient from a scary movie. Grow it green with viney things, above and below. Choke out the wolf that raised the girl. The wolf is him. He is gone. The wolf is your fear. The fear is wrong. You are right. Reach for the green. Make a fucking daisy chain. The better to see you with.
Rebecca D. Martin is a Virginia-based writer, museum docent, and educator whose work has appeared in Isele, Susurrus, Dappled Things, and Asterales, among others. She can be found at rebeccadmartin.substack.com, where she talks about books, nature, poetry, and being neurodivergent.