Impressions poetry submission: Changeling by Emma Abbruzzetti

Bio: Emma Abbruzzetti is a sophomore Developmental Psychology major on the Child Trauma and Resilience track. She writes poetry as a creative outlet and a way to relax after classes.

Changeling 

She loathes it 

The squirming, squawling, wretched little thing 

The thrice damned creature in the cradle 

Suckles at her tit like a dying leech 

Still the accursed thing cries like the infernal dead 

Rotten fruit of her womb 

With knotted hair and grotesque limbs 

She leaves the window of the fiends room cracked 

Just but a sliver 

Just enough to claim it was an accident 

If nosy neighbor hers start asking 

Just enough 

So that the Winter chill will take it 

Either Or, she cares not which. 

She wakes to a chill 

Just a chill 

There is no crying 

Nary a sound 

No. 

There is a sound 

Sweet laughter, like those of fairies 

The window is wide open 

And in the cradle lays a babe 

A Fair babe 

With pretty curls and pale skin 

A babe that never cries 

That suckles a bottle of goat’s milk and honey 

Her darling little daughter.