CLIFF NOTES AND BREAD CRUMBS

Only now can I see

I had them

all along.

The cliff notes.

They’d been given 

to me at the start.

Plot points, leitmotifs 

even bits of dialogue

were all there.

Like bread crumbs scattered 

through a Grimm’s fairy tale.

I had them, 

the cues and clues

of what was coming,

what was waiting for me

deep in the dark wood.

A good story is only 

a good story if you

don’t spoil the suspense.

So I didn’t bother with the notes.

Instead, I borrowed a lie 

from a blind witch I met somewhere 

and said to myself:

I don’t read.

Saying this was like hearing 

the sound of a branch 

tied to a dead tree 

that beat against the trunk 

in the wind

pretending to be an ax.