The Girl Who Came Back, By Meg Eden

Meg Eden's Chapbook

In 1955, Enchanted Forest theme park opened in Maryland—even though it has been defunct for nearly twenty years, the fairy tales of the park remain and live in generations of park goers. I grew up on those legends, drawing maps of the park and listening to my mother’s stories, which helped her endure her fibromyalgia. The stories of the park became my canon for fairy tales, the park itself becoming a place I could only dream about going to. The poems in the collection The Girl Who Came Back recount the fairy tales of the park, making the characters in the park come to life. They delve into the characters of the park, including Cinderella, Rapunzel, Alice, Snow White and the Gingerbread Men, but also the history of the park’s conception. The collection preserves the mythology of the Enchanted Forest, embodying the spirit of nostalgia that fairy tale lovers will resonate with.

(Editor's note: Excerpts from two works are below.)

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Visiting Girl Friends

i.

Mom talks about Snow White and Sleeping

Beauty the way girls talk about the friends

they go to the bathroom with,

and who they tell their secrets.

She remembers their dresses, the way

their hair was done in familiar Disney patterns,

how their chests moved to trick us into thinking

they could breathe. There was something real

about them, she said. Like they could be trusted.

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"The Girl Who Came Back"

Her father built the dragon in the yard. She remembers its ascension to the top of the gate. Perhaps it’s this habitual evidence that makes the offspring say, We thought it was just everyday life.

She left at a young age, I imagine. Perhaps she was bitter at her father for investing in forgotten myths and not in her own story. She was probably wearing a prodigal halter top and broken bangles when she walked out.

Only when she returned years later did she learn the house was gone. In its place, a pile of bricks. The gate was orange with rust. NO TRESSPASSING, read her childhood.

Pulling onto the grass, she split her skirt into strips like factory hands, knelt on the ground and gathered the bricks. And one by one, she placed them in the trunk of her car. This was what was left of her inheritance.

 For more information, check out: http://www.redbirdchapbooks.com/store/p65/THE_GIRL_WHO_CAME_BACK_by_Meg_Eden.html

http://www.neonmagazine.co.uk/?p=4429

Meg Eden's collections include  "Your Son" (The Florence Kahn Memorial Award), “Rotary Phones and Facebook” (Dancing Girl Press) and The Girl Who Came Back (Red Bird Chapbooks). Check out her work at: https://www.facebook.com/megedenwritespoems 

Meg Eden