MARIANNE JONES

Marianne is a Thunder Bay-based poet whose work has appeared in Wascana Review, Danforth Review, Room, North Coast Review, Prairie Journal and others, as well as several anthologies. She has won awards from Writer's Digest, The Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop, The Canadian Authors Association and the Poetry Matters Project.  Three of her poems are permanently installed at Prince Arthur’s Landing at the Marina Park in Thunder Bay. See her author page at https://www.facebook.com/MarianneJonesAuthor.

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL

It isn’t morbidity that draws us to Andersen

although he can be gruesome and god knows

what motivated “The Red Shoes,”

perhaps an irony unappreciated by his audience.

No, it’s love and transcendence:

like his match girl, 

wind snarling and biting at her bruises

where her clothing flapped open like doorways.

Her runny nose and the holes in her hat

made the shoppers look away.

She took no offense,

understanding the need to see pretty things. That’s why

she stayed out so late near the decorated shops

despite the cold and the failing light.

Winter and her father’s fists were no equals

for her imagination.

Freezing in December

face pressed to a window looking in

while her blood turned to crystal

her mind swam with visions of stars

and her grandmother’s love;

like Stephen

she died with paradise in her eyes.

Originally published in Wascana Review 33, no. 2 (Fall 1998).

Read Marianne’s work and more in Solum Journal Volume I.