ollie-ollie-in-come-free
© 1996 Devon Koren

the gingerbread girl makes her escape with snuggles the seal and some hourglass candy, writing the reckless dream of her name somewhere underneath the tide of the bus stop with blue eyeliner, waiting for the tables to turn. she lets her patchwork skirts fall soft against the 69 stilts of summer, in fear of growing old, with ashleigh and ashleigh forever and sometimes on the inside of haunting turnstiles. "take off all your shoes," she whispered, "feed me all your clothes," and then she stabbed the gingerbread girl's honey tongue with a plastic spoon and a sigh, a lingering sigh and breath of ashleigh, dying somewhere tonight. "all aboard!" the shadows ring so the gingerbread girl crumbles coffee cakes from the corduroy folds of her suitcase, to remember this when and why and where, and who is always ashleigh, but how went out for tea. forgetting her seams, the gingerbread girl stitches the ghosts of baseball cap hairbows and blue morning delights into her soft braids, and even though snuggles the seal doesn't exactly laugh, he doesn't exactly frown either. she carries a pocketful of miracles in her velveteen jacket, as the subway to mars switches the scene and the tilt-a-whirl circus of stars spins around but forgets what direction is hers. the carnival is lost in the deluge, but it's not enough water no it's never enough water to drown out the ghost, the ghost, ashleigh, or to whitewash the blood from the gingerbread girl's hands, with clorox and bleach and soapsuds that once and beginning were pearls. but there is a drought, and the gingerbread girl still tastes the tonic of blood in her mouth, and the stitches are loose but they're pulling...snuggles the seal remains silent, but the tracks moan and echo a hum, and the gingerbread girl starts to sing, pressing the pedals with penny-torn boots, placing a bookmark in between maps in search of another heart to break. ashleigh is screaming, "you whore! you whore!" with her bondage and gags against the gingerbread girl. "ashleigh, i'm sorry, i'm sorry," she sobs from the bluest of ashleigh's skies her eyes those eyes so intense the gingerbread girl must shut hers from the murder...."it won't happen again. it will never happen again. i promise." so ashleigh, where are you dying tonight?