| CHRISTIAN WARD The Real Red
Riding Hood First
Prize Winner, SLQ Poetry Competition (April 2010) Everything you’ve read about me is a lie: I detest the colour red, look away at the sight of ketchup, traffic lights and postboxes. I like the colour blue. Or yellow. Yellow’s good. The old woman? I visit my Nan, who runs a B&B in
Hastings, come back stinking of the sea and
vinegar. Pets? I once befriended a fox in my
garden, fed it greenish strips of bacon studded with bluebottles. Didn’t seem to mind. But a fox isn’t exactly a wolf, is it
now? And reports of footage of me on the
internet? Those costumes aren’t mine. I know
nothing about special effects or make-up. I can’t do impressions; have never been to a
wood. Listen, my name is Dave. I work in an
office. ©
Christian Ward 2010 | 
