Next Time You Interview a Unicorn Prepare Better Questions
You’re alone waiting for a bus in freezing wind, blowing on frostbitten fingers. I feel sorry for you. I’m here to watch the aurora borealis predicted for tonight, a first this far south. So, I answer. Yes, I have family and friends. I am an alicorn of the Water Moon lineage. My ancestors go ten centuries back. To be blunt - a word I hesitate to use - I prefer degrees of sharp – we do not seek virgins. Too fraught with lies. A medieval princess had her portrait painted with a unicorn so her suitors would believe she was intact. Tapestries? Those showing hunters ganging up on one of the Mountain Jewel individuals? Five hundred years ago. I might debate about whether that was really a unicorn. Fences do not contain us. Do not get me started on those heinous toys with rainbow hair. I can’t barf, but you get the idea. Do not give one to your daughter. I suppose toymakers meant them as compliments, but that’s like saying Santa dolls represent humans. Buy her a toy tractor. Or an anatomically correct plastic dinosaur. We’re barely surviving this sixth mass extinction cycle. I could disappear in a blink. I fantasize about kicking a human in the head, but I won’t. You’d freeze to death. I prefer peace when possible. Tomorrow wear mittens.
What Inspires You
I’ve taken two prose poems workshops recently from Jose Hernandez Diaz, who is a master of prose poems. Both workshops transformed my work; I’ve been head over heels in love with writing prose poetry since those workshops. In one, he suggested that we write about an interaction with a superhero or a mythological creature. I chose a unicorn, envisioning the unicorn on the same corner where I waited for a bus. The poem, “Next Time You Interview a Unicorn Ask Better Questions,” was picked up and published in April 2025 in As It Ought To Be (https://asitoughttobemagazine.com/tricia-knoll-next-time-you-interview-a-unicorn-prepare-better-questions/). I’ve written a book of poems about horses so unicorns came quickly to mind. I think they might be a bit haughty, which is how I portrayed the unicorn. I was writing from a time that winter had settled in with cold, so I used that as the location. It was fun to write this.
I’ve been reading mostly prose poems since I dived into this genre. The poets I’ve explored recently include Kathleen McGookey, Russell Edson, Charles Simic, Lydia Davis, and Nin Andrews. I’m always on the lookout for poems by Jose Hernandez Diaz. I appreciate Margaret Atwood’s prose poems/short-short fictions. I take as many workshops as I can afford. I’ve been lucky over the years to attend workshops coordinated by James Crews, Kim Stafford, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, Rebecca Sparks, Bianca Stone, Andrea Hollander, and many other fine poets and haikuists. I try to write something every day as part of the Stafford Challenge, and sometimes that’s a haiku.
Particularly when faced with unrelenting cold temperatures, as Vermont has witnessed this winter, I spend some time coloring mandalas. I’ve started creating sigils from the chaos magic suggestions to remind me of my goals and intentions. I hang them about the house, an interplay of ancient sacred circles and contemporary chaos magic as I’m addressing a health transformation.
Bio
Tricia Knoll’s The Unknown Daughter was a finalist in the 2025 New England Poetry Club chapbook contest. More than 300 of her poems appear in journals and nine collections, full-length or chapbooks. Wild Apples, out in 2024 from Fernwood Press, details downsizing and moving 3,000 miles from Oregon to Vermont. After 18 years of working in free verse, she is now writing mostly prose poems. Fernwood Press will publish a full-length poetry book, Gathering Marbles, in July 2027. Knoll serves as a Contributing Editor to the online journal Verse Virtual. Website: www.triciaknoll.com
Find the Spring 2026 Issue HERE
Previous NPM 2026 poets
| April 1 | Amy Forstadt |
| April 2 | Annette Sisson |
| April 3 | Beth Kanell |
| April 4 | Bonnie Proudfoot |
| April 5 | Charles Stringer |
| April 6 | D. Dina Friedman |
| April 7 | David Colodney |
| April 8 | Deanna Ludwin |
| April 9 | Eileen Pettycrew |
| April 10 | Felice Alexandra |
| April 11 | Grace Massey |
| April 12 | Hallie Fogarty |
| April 13 | Isabel Cristina Legarda |
| April 14 | Jon Yungkans |
| April 15 | Kim Welliver |
| April 16 | Laura Foley |
| April 17 | Laurie Kuntz |
| April 18 | Marissa Glover |
| April 19 | Michelle McMillan-Holifield |
| April 20 | Miriam Sagan |
| April 21 | Roy Mason |
| April 22 | Sarah Banks |
| April 23 | Sean Whalen |
| April 24 | Shutta Crum |
| April 25 | Simona Carini |
| April 26 | Sunny Hemphill |
| April 27 | Susannah Sheffer |
| April 28 | Tricia Knoll |