I Read Poems: Urban Legends Of The Ohio River by Laura Grothaus

 

Urban Legends Of The Ohio River by Laura Grothaus in Strange Horizons

Two girls are telling stories. One is the story of the River Witch. Once the river ran with pigs blood and pig intestines. And the River Witch called to two girls on the roof and not satiated by the pigs she ate them up.

Does our narrator, our poet, know what she feels about the other girl, the girl with the legs, the girl who has burned her hair straight? That girl doesn’t know the story about the River Witch. That girl doesn’t know the danger, and doesn’t know the other ending, where the river freezes and is a bridge and the River Witch sews her pigs together.

Read This: Because an urban legend is a reflection of mundane concerns
Don’t Read This: There is no single version of the River Witch so there can be no answers