How To

Francesca Lia Block
How to (Un)cage a Girl


for the girls


Contents
Part 1: Years at the Asylum
Thirteen: The Little Oven
Fourteen: Europa
Fifteen: The Canyon
Popular Girl
Sixteen: First time
Seventeen: War
Eighteen: Monster
Nineteen: The Asylum
A Myth of Love for Girls
Part 2: In the Lair of the Toxic Blonde
Lost in Los Angeles
Toxic Blonde
Media Queenz
Duty: For Sofia
Vampire in the City of Lost
L.A. Bacchantes
People’s Park (Escape to the North)
Like Pretty
My Love
Part 3: Love Poems for Girls
For the Girls
Pain is Like an Onion
Ornate
Teenage Fairy: For M
The Little Mermaid: For Ama
Neptune’s Daughter
Miniature Mouse
For Valentina
Valentina Screama
As I Remember it: For Lily
For Karen: Whose Last Name I can’t Recall
Joanna: Wood Thorn Fairy
Selene: The dress with the Cigarette Burns
How to Become a Priestess
Gretel Finds her Way
Collage
Miranda
Fairy Sisters: For Sukha
Happi Happi Joy Joy and Sad in Hawaii
Yxta
Titania
The Face
Valentine
The Three Graces
A Half Imagined History: For O
Forty-five Thoughts for My Daughter and My Virtual Daughters
How to (Un)cage a Girl
About the Author
Other Books by Francesca Lia Block
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher


PART 1
years at the asylum


thirteen: the little oven
i thought my teacher was a nazi
with hair slicked to the side
short and germanic
he lectured about hitler
spittle
in his voice
boys with greasy scalps
drew cartoons of me
with a witch’s nose
my body was so thin
i had chopped off
my pretty brown hair
my skin charred and blistered
red bumps broke out
there was blood between my legs
is this junior high school?
hell?
or somewhere worse?


fourteen: europa
in florence i saw the most beautiful
man in the world
standing by the botticelli
birth of venus
as if the painting had split open to deliver him
he even smiled at me
white teeth golden cheekbones
on the top of the hill was david
huge marble perfection
exposing his penis to me alone
can you imagine in america
god made flesh
but without the blood or loincloth?
by the trevi fountain in rome
pan himself made an appearance
curls and a gap between his teeth
when he grinned at me
a hairy, cloven mystery
lurking
in his jeans
the hotel overlooked a square
the walls were thick and ghost
white with moonlight
shadows streaked the room
i woke to hear my father growling to my mother
“get onto me”
and saw their bodies moving in the bed
beside my tiny single
cot
that was when i too turned to stone
my mouth sealed shut
they packed me up and took me off to greece
to introduce me to some marble goddesses
without pubic hair
as if that might make me feel better
my parents with good intentions
rolled their new caryatid onto the white sands
of the beach
a million perilous pulverized
petals of pearl
the water was such a sheer blue
you could see right through it
to the wavy patterns on the ocean floor
like aphrodite’s hair
i knew i should be grateful for this opportunity
to see the birthplace of the goddess
but how could i ever speak of it?
the greek boys came to play with me
they frolicked around
brown and curly full of life
when night fell and the ouzo glasses
lit up like lanterns in the taverna
my mother said, “kiss him, darling, it’s easy
so natural”
and i thought to myself, not with lips of stone
dear mother
not with lips of stone


fifteen: the canyon
steamy hot night in the eucalyptus rainwater-forged
canyon my friend and i discovered a ruined house
the wildflowers growing over the foundation and a
silver ring with a king a queen a snake and a rose
then as we walked home a boy on a motorcycle
zoomed to a halt leonine face tall rambling body
somehow the next thing i remember he was sliding
his hands up and down my legs i hadn’t shaved and
was prickly but he didn’t seem to mind later we
kissed in my friend’s shag-carpeted bedroom with
the water bed and beanbag chairs his hands moved
higher i wonder where the parents were i know a
few months later my mom dropped me off at his
apartment in west hollywood his mother was gone i
imagined she was very beautiful young and blond
maybe in the sex industry no father and i was
wearing tight jeans and a floral crepe blouse with
fake pearl buttons and when he kissed me he said i
tasted like garlic from the bagels i’d eaten with my
parents at brunch this he minded though he did let
me touch his penis and then i left that is all i
remember though i think once in a disco parking lot
i saw him again but nothing happened why do i
remember only certain details and really the main
question is where was my mother?


popular girl
who are you?
(you are not like me)
where do you come from?
who are your parents?
what does your mother look like?
and your father—how does he make money?
to pay for those jeans? those shoes?
and what about your hair
it is all about the hair
you cannot be one without good hair
with frizz or split ends
what kind of shampoo do you use?
what does your hair smell like?
it is long and shines
is there a rule about pimples?
you never have pimples
why not?
are your hormones different?
are you an alien?
what are you going to be when you grow up?
are you still going to be beautiful
with good hair?
even when you die?
are you still going to be mean?
are you going to be a beautician, wife or realtor?
cosmo cover girl? queen?