overlook

Before the hotel, there is no Wendy.
We make her out of bangs and terror.
Out of gingham and coveralls
 
and mount her on the stairs.
Her only purpose is terror.
That which we go into,
 
down and down as into a cellar.
No Wendy after, a lit cigarette
burning her through second
 
marriage, her third. No Wendy
haunting the house that is
her husband. her hands
 
and head bloody. No Wendy
opening giant cans of corn
with a can opener in the kitchen.
 
Without all that crying, no Wendy
in the ink moving across the page
where we go down and down
 
like a rat into a trap where terror makes
us like a bed. Where we write our
names in blood on the wall
 
with our fingers. The Wendy
of our nightmares sobbing
through the bathroom door. 

read the rest here...