Cathie Borrie’s lyrical memoir, the long hello—memory, my mother, and me, is published by Simon & Schuster (Canada) and Skyhorse (US). Her poems appear in (M)othering: an anthology (Inannna); Passionfruit Review; Tiny Spoon; Unlost Journal (Ambidextrous Bloodhound Press); and Antilang Magazine. Borrie holds a Certificate in Creative Writing from The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University and lives in North Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She/her.
“a sculpture of conversations responds to, rejects, and re-conceptualizes the traditional narratives and social stereotypes pervasive in folk & fairy tales about women and men, making room for trans and queer people, shifting gender roles, and various sexual orientations.
“In the process of creating the work, it became evident that my work was responding and connecting to a continuum of conversations, tracing back to oral storytelling traditions—the Grimm Brothers gathering, documenting, and publishing their 156 tales in 1812 & 1815; Jack Zipes’s first English translation two hundred years later in 2015; and long con magazine’s call for art about art.
“Tackling formal poetic patterns, I wanted to challenge the expected both in content and form. Text, as material, is selected to create each poem, like a sculptor might select wood or clay or stone. The carving of the text reveals the poem and takes shape, as the original meaning of each tale vanishes, and new ‘poetic sculptures’ emerge.”
once upon a time
she could never give enough.
it was becoming an always wanting
a stray from the path
a promise to obey.
—oh Mother . . .
wasn’t it only yesterday that three oak trees listened to four lovely birds singing in the sun,
and The Wood of Beautiful Flowers knocked at the door of Spring?
[Little Red Cap (Rothkäppchen)]
the cloven prayer
for seven years she set out into the world with Nobody,
praying No-One heard her sighs and moans.
in the eighth year she arrived at the Home of Forgotten Names,
praying she’d be remembered.
what didn’t she pray for?
mercy
a bridegroom
matching socks.
[The Devil in the Green Coat (Der Teufel Grünrock)
looking out
the widow thought to herself—
if only I had Frame to mirror my certainty
that Beauty asks a thousand questions of the heart
and summons Death as proof that a promise to return
never does.
I am so alone.
if only I had Mirror to frame my certainty
that Nobody recognizes an old woman’s beauty
a thousand times more alive
undisguised.
Mirror answered—
on the outside, the beautiful are made
with cunning and desire.
on the inside, their inscription pleads
don’t leave.
[Little Snow White (Sneewittchen {Schneeweißchen})]
an edge of anger
she christened a wish she might die
but didn’t
just kept the want of it
the want to return home
the want to never come back.
she rode away taking want with her
and for years penned promises in writing—
be always cheerful, tend the forest,
rejoice in the World of the Long Dead.
birdsong rose in the air and implored her words
to dress in Goodbye’s beautiful clothes.
she chased Grace for seven years who promised a welcome
at the Table of No Return. when the clock struck four
she was set free of wishes, set free of want.
[Hans My Hedgehog (Hans mein Igel)]
the consent of fear
one sad promise to tell a little white lie
led him down the road of deceit.
at the end of the week, he sighed—
if only I had been the right bridegroom,
learned to cook and sew and please.
what a disaster to come for me,
seven years between lost and saved.
[Hurleburlebutz (Hurleburlebutz)]
brothers
the elves want to be girls. The king refused.
he loved sons and didn’t know how to favor daughters.
they flee into the night and pray for a blessing to shadow their doomed lives
then swear to live as maidens without mercy or mystery.
nobody knew the elves composed beautiful arrangements
or made up beds, nice and white and clean.
at noon, twelve ravens wept twelve words that slander the king’s beliefs.
the elves, complete as handsome princesses,
were pleased that everything turned out so well.
[The Twelve Brothers (Die zwölf Brüder)]
