Sunday, March 18, 2012

Stepford Fairy Tale



image from google


The prompt over at dVerse is to 
write a poem based on a fairy tale. 
Given I lived the tale, I didn't have far to look.


She was raised on fairy tales:
beautiful princesses, handsome princes,
ivory towers, white horses, 
bad witch spells overturned by heroic knights,
Technicolor dreams so beautiful,
we rushed to plunge right in.


Steeped in romantic notions,
she fared forth innocent and round-eyed,
wheat for the sickle,
corn  for the scythe.


The wolves sat up and took note.


She didn't know she could choose,
so one chose her,
built her a house of sticks
too fragile to withstand,
too sharp to provide comfort,
too small to  accommodate
her big unwieldy spirit.
He battered her with words and demands,
"my needs, my wants, what's wrong with you?"
Not the words of the fairy tale prince.
She must then be the ugly step-sister, 
the one who didn't fit the glass slipper.
She was not the true princess.


She tried to fit that shoe on
with all her might,
until it shattered
and finally sprang her free.


Out of the box of sticks 
and into her life she tumbled,
clutching her babies,
and that first glorious morning 
of  freedom
she hippety-hopped downhill, 
pushing the baby buggy,
laughing and giggling 
with her bouncing, rollicking  babies
into a brand new life.

13 comments:

  1. oh wow...stories written by real life...could feel the tightness of that house...leaving no space to breathe..and the trying to make that shoe fit...it only goes for a certain time i guess...glad you managed to break free..sound like it was the right decision..

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  2. .ugh...a hard space in which to try to live that...whew i am glad you got a bit of a happily ever after in finding your freedom...

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  3. Trying to fit into someone's glass slipper isn't going to work and last. Of course we eventually learn we can choose...and I like that happy ending of bouncing babies down into a brand new life ~

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  4. I'm glad she lived happily ever after. She deserved to. :)

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  5. She was tricked by believing in fairy tales. Now she doesn't believe in fairy tales any longer; but she is FREE. I enjoyed this, Sherry.

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  6. nice metaphors especially, she tried to fit that shoe

    once upon a polar bear

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  7. Ahh a happy ending at least. Love the metaphors you used. Beautiful poem.

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  8. Ahh a happy ending at least. Love the metaphors you used. Beautiful poem.

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  9. now THAT's what i call a truly happy ending!

    love the way you wrote this, especially her "unwieldy spirit" ~ brilliant description!

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  10. It is a wonderful thing when fairy tales end happily ... especially when you are the writer of that tale. Kudos. And thank you friend for so much support. You are like a rainbow.

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  11. You can go to surprising places if you change the conventions of a fairy tale

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  12. shattered dreams are the best thing for some of us. nice.

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