CHRISTIAN WARD
The Real Red
Riding Hood
First
Prize Winner, SLQ Poetry Competition (April 2010)
Everything you've read about me is a lie:
I detest the colour red, look away
at the sight of ketchup, traffic lights
and postboxes. I like the colour blue.
Or yellow. Yellow's good. The old woman?
I visit my Nan, who runs a B&B in
Hastings,
come back stinking of the sea and
vinegar.
Pets? I once befriended a fox in my
garden,
fed it greenish strips of bacon studded
with bluebottles. Didn't seem to mind.
But a fox isn't exactly a wolf, is it
now?
And reports of footage of me on the
internet?
Those costumes aren't mine. I know
nothing
about special effects or make-up. I can't
do impressions; have never been to a
wood.
Listen, my name is Dave. I work in an
office.
©
Christian Ward 2010
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