Dire Wolf Consequences

by Juliet Cook and Daniel G. Snethen

The dire wolf shuddered

in the primordial dawn,

changing, transforming, metamorphosizing

into a dreadful school bus driver,

into a screaming 3rd grade teacher

with diabolical fangs directed towards

one shy little girl. The cruel teacher barks,

cancels recess, hideously instructs

students to place their heads down

on the desks. She is prepared to lash out

at anyone who moves against her

and bite or slash them in the neck.
I was the shy one. I couldn't move.

I was afraid to breathe.

I didn't want her to hear me.

I feared I might get stomped or cut

into even tinier pieces.

Unable to speak inside my own head.
Red Riding Hood hair covered in blood-red

satin. Then the Huntsman, Little Red's father

bursts through the door,

wielding a two-bladed axe.

Screams "bitch," swings his axe

and cuts off my best friend's head
because I had breathed too loudly.

Blood splatters the chalkboard

like malicious bite marks

which coagulate, then flow like crimson ink

spelling out in perfect combination:

"Here's Johnny!"

as the enraged father figure/evil teacher/bus driver

spits in my face, screams at me for being
a finicky eater, insists I stick my pinky finger

inside the pencil sharpener

and I do so—obediently, though it hurts.

Then the entire class stares as I use the ground stump

of my finger to retrace

"Here's Johnny," on the blackboard

while unintelligibly repeating:

"redrum, redrum," beneath my whispered breath.

Then the entire class morphs and changes

into costumed mates. Bears, wolves,

mean grandmothers, substitutes, principals,
all of them are holding sharpened pencils

or knives pointed at me, all of them are aimed

towards being in charge of sadistically targeting me.

Juliet Cook doesn't fit inside an Easy-Bake Oven and rarely cooks. She reads, writes, and submits poetry and her poetry has appeared in many print and online publications. She is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks most recently including red flames burning out (Grey Book Press, 2023), Contorted Doom Conveyor (Gutter Snob Books, 2023), and Your Mouth is Moving Backwards (Ethel Zine & Micro Press, 2023), with another new chapbook, REVOLTING, forthcoming from Cul-de-sac of Blood in Fall 2024. You can find out more at https://julietcook.weebly.com/.

Daniel G. Snethen is an educator, naturalist, moviemaker, poet, and short story writer from South Dakota. He teaches on the Pine Ridge Reservation at Little Wound High School in the heart of Indian Country.