I
A Big Bang, sudden expansion;
molded by clay, blown to life
like a balloon filling with air;
a whittled rib bone;
an angry God, fall from grace,
burnt husk flaming my way to earth—
after the flood, they found me.
II
Mother wished on a morning star,
beseeched her fairy godmother,
offered rowan branches and bowls of berries
to all the grandmothers.
She prayed to her ancestors,
foraged in cabbage patches,
accepted tea and charms from wise-women.
One day she wandered desperately
into the woods, shared a meal
with Baba Yaga, made a bargain.
III
I emerged, like a volcano
from a fissure in the ocean floor;
sprouted from a pile of magic beans
and grew straight through the sky;
hatched wet and pale
from a petrified dragon’s egg;
thawed from the center
of a centuries-old glacier;
my lover dreamed me awake.
IV
Father wept into an enchanted pool,
found a genie’s lamp and rubbed—
I was his third wish. I erupted fully
formed from his head. He carved
a puppet child of soft pine,
the gnarled fingers of Fate
cut my strings. He plucked me
whole from the meat of his thigh.
V
Faeries left me in the forest
near my childhood home; an animated bird
delivered me, wrapped in a white flag;
drop of cursed blood mingled with dirt;
shaped out of gingerbread and baked to life;
stitched together by science, jolted
by lightning; in a sacred circle of trees
a deer laid down as sacrifice.
About the author:
Elizabeth Rae Bullmer has been writing since the age of seven. Bullmer’s work has appeared in Pensive, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Cloudbank, Sky Island Journal, Her Words, Anacapa Review and The Awakenings Review. Her most recent chapbook is Skipping Stones on the River Styx. She’s a licensed massage/sound therapist, facilitates writing/healing workshops, serves on two community poetry boards and is the mother of two phenomenal humans, living with three fantastic felines in Kalamazoo. https://elizabethbullmer.wordpress.com/
Part of our Summer 2025 Issue. New stories, poems, and essays now through August 31, 2025.
Thank you for supporting our journal. Want to deepen your connection to our community of writers and readers? Please consider joining our email list, making a gift to our journal, submitting your writing, or purchasing our first printed collection, Tangled Lives.
Tangled Locks Journal 