The Poetry of Elisa Pulido & Art of Liz Pulido

Man-Eating Mermaids Call after the Lost Boys

Lost boys, fair as feasts, give us the sands
of your lives. You’re what we want, and we’re
the singing you hear. Come down, come here
to the water. Come give us your hands--

    We’re Olympia and Olathe--
    “Little Sister” spoils the math!
    Leave that lady on the shore,
    Come and live a little more . . .

We’ll show you our secrets and safe
in our arms, you’ll riot on razor-
sharp charm. Lost boys, come roil in splendor
with us—glimmering, emerald wraiths. 

    We're Ottavia and Odette,
    Trade your blonde for a brunette!
    Leave that lady on the shore,
    Come and live a little more . . .

Municipal Employment Agent Mary Darling
Informs Wendy about Her Future Career

If I told you the Founders had assigned you
to a position in health care--

If I told you it’s a grand deception--

If I told you your life will be divided,
shared, no, donated without your permission--

If I told you the Founders are not ageless,
but wizened and failing  and every year
find their elixir in a graduate
like you—smallish, young, a little bit wheezy—
not offering the Metropolis much
as a whole specimen, but the parts will do--

If I told you what no one else will tell you--

If I told you, your corneas will allow  
the Chancellor to read, and your liver
will allow the Vice Chancellor to booze on,
and your marrow will replete the City’s
Highest (and surely most jaundiced) Provost--

If I told you Metropolitan police
are watching us, listening to us, and coming—

If I told you why I’m telling you—

If I told you that once you were mine,
and, though small and sometimes wheezy,
to me you are an amazement, a perfection--

If I begged you to save yourself as you are,
whole, free and unique,
would you flee the Metropolis?
would you run?

Run, Wendy! Please run!

Elisa Pulido's poems have appeared in many journals in the U.S., including River Styx, The Ledge, The North American Review, The New Guard and RHINO iand in Interchange and The New Welsh Review in the UK. She is an honorary member of Academi Cardiff, the national literary society of Wales.  She has an MFA in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a writing a dissertation  in Religious Studies at Claremont Graduate University.

Liz Pulido graduated in from Brigham Young University with a BFA in illustration. She recently finished her MFA show at the Maryland Insitute College of Art. Her illustrations snap with color and life, reinvisioning old myths and characters. She also designs textiles for a children's clothing company—Izzy and Ferd—that she runs with her sisters. Follow her work at http://lizpulido.com.