The Wayward Thing.
"The wayward thing is not Wendy but rather Tiger Lily,
and there is not a brave who would not
have the wayward thing to wife.
But Wendy notices.
She notices how Peter will go off to fight for her,
will go off to reclaim her, to free her from pirate strings
and pirate beams.
He'll untie her with teeth, will carry her over board,
will safely stay underwater until there
are no grown ups in sight.
I'm a little bird, he says.
I'm a little bird who has broken out of an egg.
And dear Wendy, dear Wendy who gathers all the bramble
wires and briars and twigs of the Neverland forest, who
crouches down to make a little nest, who crouches down
to make a little kindling for a fire,
where is she to lay down this little bird who crows and crows
and crows?
When he talks in his sleep, he will say
a name you have never known.
There will be an adventure.
There will be an adventure without you.
When he talks in his sleep, you will
know that one day, one day you will sleep and sleep
and never wake.
And he will go on.
He will go on without you.
Never mind that the daffodils are all already a wilting,
never mind that you can no longer let out the hem.
So, you see now, he appears to be covered with fish scales.
They're all tangled in his hair, in his head hair,
in his cochlear hair, in the little tuft above his bum,
in his pubis down.
It was only an adventure, Wendy.
It was only--.
But she knows the look of infidelity.
Knows the smell of a certain mere lady.
Who among them will live forever?
Certainly not the girl who has been left at home.
Certainly not the girl who has been left darning socks alone.
The darning egg is really a stone.
I'm a little bird, he says.
But he doesn't just say that to you alone.
And now the whole of the house, a saltwater affair, his breath,
his musk, his farts all tinged with that certain crabby smell.
I'm Wendy, she says.
I'm Wendy.
But it doesn't stop there.
The bed, all a-crusty, the floorboards all a-sandy,
the bath basin all a-glittering with mermaid hair.
The Wendy girl will live longer than you.
The never bird will live longer than you.
The wayward thing will be taken to wife
unlike you who will never be taken to wife.
And she, too, will live longer than you.
Shoot her down, shoot her down, you say.
And down comes the Wendy bird.
And down comes the Peter bird to say who has done this?
And you're shut up in your little house again.
And all around you, the various fairy birds,
are dying, are falling away from the Neverland.
Hanging cocoon corpses in the never trees for the never
worm for the never bees."