Sunday 12 February 2017

Buttered Side Down

A poem from 2016
Strangers in the night
A typically starlit night
Ravishing she
Handsome he
Danced and stared into each other’s eyes
Two souls wrapped together
A prince, a pauper
On deceptively equal terms

Two minutes to midnight
Panic!
She must leave
He's confused
Why the hurry?
She runs to her carriage
Loses her glass slipper
He picks it up and determines
He'll find her tomorrow
And marry the girl the slipper fits
He won't sleep tonight

She's out of sight as midnight strikes
Her carriage turns into a pumpkin
She tumbles
To the ground
Surrounded by mice
Dressed in rags
Muddied and grazed she hastens home
In tears

He can barely wait till sunrise
He travels the town looking for her
In hope, he thrusts the shoe upon every girl
To no avail
He seems desolate with each failure
Hope flagging he enters her dwelling
Two ugly sisters greet him, flirting
Trying to force the shoe to fit
It doesn't
Some strange act of conscience constrains them
Call their little sister
In rags
Dirty
He gives her the shoe
It fits!
He is astonished!
His princess
Is only a skivvy
Downhearted he walks away
And bemoans his fate

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