Pieces of a Beast's Beauty- an E-Chapbook

Cry, the beast said. Beauty was always forgetting her name. She wrote it on mirror surfaces, then shattered the glass. She didn't like the way the reflection looked at her. It demanded sacrifices of wilted roses and she only had enough to keep herself alive.

The beast got tired of Beauty severing rose heads. She left the dying bulbs in

broken plastic vases. The teakettles pulled the flowers out to steep in their boiling water. They made rosebud tea and poured it over the beast's face. Beauty crawled over and slurped the drink from his fur.

Beauty turned into a molded soap. The beast scrubbed her along the walls until pieces of her skin came off. She refused to foam around his paws. She dribbled down the drain and sat in the plumbing trap. She got stuck when she came together but she liked the copper pressure on her bones.

Beauty's father came home. He lived beneath the dining room table, eating the scraps that fell. Father thought he was a dog and chased the beast. Beauty stood on her chair until her heels blistered. She reached up to pick the ceiling apart.

Beauty lived with a pack of rabid wolves. The alpha male claimed her. Their children were furred humans who could not form vowel sounds. The beast found the offspring and ate them. He defecated after and the feces had hideously open faces.

Beauty boiled herself alive. She held the water inside her genitals until the flesh bubbled. Her bowels became over-cooked tripe. The beast ate them out of her. After, he seasoned his tongue with salt.

Beast kept clawing at his thighs. He made spare ribs out of his knee caps. Beauty slathered the bone marrow with butter. She wanted to eat solid fat but settled on liquid. She kept gluttonous cubes beneath her bed.

She decided to remove her skin. It was a slow boiling process. She lay over tea kettles until her flesh softened. It slipped down her bones. Beast saw her and gnawed on her exposed spine.

Beast thought she should be a cat. Beauty dried the whiskers but they itched her lips. She ate dry food out of a splintered glass bowl. Every time she took a bite, she cut her chin open. Beast was thirsty and licked the fluid from her wound.

Beauty decided to pull her teeth out and drop them down the drain. She plucked her fingernails and stored them in a pillow. The sharp ends cut her neck. Beast tried to kiss her but she skinned him. She wore his fur into the forest and sacrificed the hide to rose wolves.