Memmie Le Blanc, the Wild Girl of Champagne
by Katie Benson

A rustling in the woods caused the town to run about,
And eventually bring in the dogs
To get the little girl out of the tree and into a nunnery.
Where she might be taught to be a lady
Who speaks French, does needlepoint,
And does not eat rabbits alive.
Sometimes breaking a person is as easy as luring them out of a tree with a fish,
For after she killed the dog with her stick,
The trout seemed the last hope for the people of Champagne,
Who so wanted her to be a nice little girl.
A girl who doesn't fight the urge to eat small children
because she is so starved for raw meat.
Who can be taught that god loves her,
And wants her to be docile and proper,
And not run back to the woods where she was unaware of her impending damnation.
It must have been a good sign that when she learned to speak French,
She forgot how to imitate birdsong.

Katie Benson is 22, from Seattle and majoring in Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology at Fairhaven College, Western Washington University . She spends her time doing wildlife rehabilitation, writing, sewing, and playing with her hedgehog. She's a big fan of the arts and the sciences, and hopes she'll be able to continue with both.