by Rose Jermusyk.
Healer-Witch: Why am I awake? Who is in my garden? What is she eating?
Parsley: Are you afraid of going bald, my child? Seeking a fairer complexion? Or is all
this to stop what grows in your belly?
Daughter-Mother: What would I do if I had the chance to start again? Would I have still
sought his love as an escape? Would I have stolen away in a wholly other direction?
Healer-Witch: What will you do with this new chance? Who will you be when this thing is done? Where will you go?
Brother: Why are you doing this, Sister? Why does this anger Father so? What are you trying to teach me?
Father-Broker: How many years have you longed for a child? What can you offer as payment for a child such as this? How golden will be your silence?
Sage: Does your milk flow with unbidden memories? Would you like it to stop? Do you know there is nothing I can do to stop the remembering?
Fairy-Stepmother: How comes your hair so golden? How comes your skin so fair? How comes your voice so loud a silence?
Stepfather-Death: How like your father are you? How like your mother will you be? What choice do I have but to lock you away, protect your good from your bad?
Tower-Girl: Am I the first to see the world from such a high window? Will I be the last? Will no one else ever own their own skull to be such a room held aloft by their towering body?
Suitor: Will you not sing to me from your perch, pretty bird? Will you not tell me your name? Will you not toss to me so much as an apple from which you have taken a bite?
Gossip: Do you know who that is? Do you know what they say about her? Do you know the awful chance you take loving such as her?
Rosemary: Are we baking bread today? Are you breaking bread that I may clear the air? How shall we remember without blame, all things as settled as a full stomach?
Love-Note: How much of the world have you seen? How easy is it for you to take flight? How lonely are you on the road?
Reply: How much of the world you like to see? How long a rope is your hair? How could I ever again be lonely with you by my side?
Scissors-Obtained: Will you leave no farewell note? Are you willing to let him do the climbing for you? Are you strong enough to do your own climbing?
Cut-Tresses: Did it work? How far away did you get? Will you ever recognize us, woven upon some old woman’s head?
Open-Road: Didn’t get very far selling that hair, did you? Can’t go back and don’t know how to go on, do you? What’s to come of you now when you haven’t even your own voice to speak for you?
Thyme: Would you like some honey to treat those burns, my son? Who will you trust to point you in the right direction? How does a blind man find a silent woman?
Crossroads: Any idea which way she went? Where did you say you would meet? Why didn’t you insist on leaving hand-in-hand?
Wanderers: How else could we be sure of our own strength? How else could we know what we really wanted? What other path could we have possibly taken?
Time: Will you please look where you are going? Can you not see me walking here? Do you not know that all you can do is move forward from where you are right now?