Finally!

So, seven months later, I'm entering my last Fairytale Poem. I don't think anyone has held their breath for this one,and if they did they would have long ago slipped into a coma. The is one is based on the Red Shoes, a cautionary tale against vanity and selfishness. For any girl who would love a good time and pretty shoes more than her obligations must indeed be a very bad girl, or something like that. I personally love red shoes, I own two pair, one pair in flats, one pair with spiky heels and pointy toes, I don't wear those as often because they are absolute torture to my senstive feet, but man are they fabulous! Anyway, on with the poetry. This is meant to be read in a hurry, like chanting slightly out of breath.


Red Shoes

Red shoes, red shoes,
ruby red shoes.
Red shoes, small shoes,
dancing red shoes

Pretty, so pretty,
I want the red shoes.

Red shoes, now my shoes,
pretty red shoes,
Watch me, so gracefull
in my red shoes.

I'm dancing so flirty
until the party's close,
but my shoes don't stop dancing
and I'm stuck on my toes!

Stop me! Please help me
get out of my shoes.
No help I dance on
over forest and town,

through daylight and black night,
no rest for my shoes.

I've had exough dancing,
I'm thin and worn out.
So tired, so tattered,
except for my shoes.

Mercy! I ask you
cut off my red shoes!
let me die, let me rest
away from these shoes

Red shoes, cursed shoes,
removed at last.
I'm bandaged and crippled
but free from the dance.

February 2007

Fairy Tales #6

The penultimate fairy tale poem. This one was inspired by a tv commercial for xm radio of all things. The commercial featured a singer I'd never heard of, and hauntingly awesome piano playing. I misunderstood the words she was singing, though, I thought I understood them perfectly. I eventually found the song by youtube sleuthing and it was "Better" by Regina Spektor. By then I was a little familiar with Regina's style and it didn't surprise me she was the one I was looking for. I looked up the real words and my version wasn't even close. I decided I didn't care. I liked her words, I liked my words. So I started writing a full version of my lyrics which turned out to be from the point of view of sleeping beauty. The first lines of the real lyrics are "If I kiss you where it's sore, will you feel better, better, better, will you feel anything at all?" I had heard the first words as "If I kiss you, will I wake?" Which didn't make sense, but it got me started all the same. If you want to hear "Better" it is on my playlist third from the top. My version starts out fitting into the meter of the song, but eventually strays since I wasn't really trying to stick to the song.

If You Kiss Me

If you kiss me will I wake?
If you kiss me, will I find
that you love me
wholly,
completely,
and fully,
Will you even love me at all?

High up in this tower
where dreams are only dreams
and the thunder snores around me
sound like roaring ocean waves.

If I kiss you will I find
that you only wanted a prize;
and never really wanted more than
a trophy,
a princess,
and power;
and no love at all.

So what does it take to love
someone you've never met before?
Would it be better
to have known you forever
or will one kiss be enough?

If you kiss me will I cry,
from the wound of years alone.
Will you forgive me for tears of joy
mixed with spindle's pain.

If you kiss me will I wake
from this endless empty dream?
Will real life be better
than I could imagine
and will I ever know?

August 2007

Fairytales #5

I wrote this one originally in 2002, but edited out a lot later, I just can't remeber when. I had restated the story too exactly so I left in enough to stay accurate and cut out enough to suit my sensibilities.

Snow Queen

Shards of dark glass
in his eye and heart
and the Snow Queen's freezing kiss
have stolen my Kay away.

Winter so dark and lonely without him.
Spring's new hope starts my journey.

The river carries me far from home.
A loney crone keeps me with her spells,
but her roses remind, it's Kay I must find,
so I leave her behind.

My love for him fills me
and opens the hearts
of birds, beasts, royalty, and robbers
to assist my quest to find my Kay.

At the end of the earth
stands the ice palace.
Kay at last!
but so cold, so still, so stiff.

My eager arms embrace
and welling joy spills
in hot tears that thaw his heart
and open his eyes.

Then he knows me.
Kay is my Kay again!

We're back home in warmest Summer.
Childhood is left behind,
but our childlike hearts beat together
never to freeze again.

April 2002

Fairytales #4

This one was written around the same time as the last two poems, but I have little memory of it. I did have a drawing for this one once, but it has disappeared. It was of the two main characters in the fire together, so it was romantically tragic or morbid, depending on the audience.

Steadfast Tin Soldier

Balanced on one leg
and gazing across the room,
I, a paper doll for admiring
see my one-legged soldier
in tin attention, never retiring.

Lost by a child's carelessness.
my steadfast soldier gone!
I would weep for loneliness,
but my painted smile stays on.

At last, at last,
he is returned,
saved from the belly of a fish,
but thrown in the fire and burned.

No!
He must know he's loved
before he's gone!
I cannot watch him die alone!

Catching a draft of air, I leap.
My paper body burns in a flash;
and his melted tin keeps company
with the spangle from my sash.

April 2002

Fairytales #3

This one is not my best, but I'm including it anyway since I have a very limited supply of good poems. I think I wrote this one in the same long night of poetry as The Little Mermaid.

Princess and the Pea

Up the ladder, anticipating comfort,

I climb into the strangest of beds.

I'm glad I'm not afraid of heights

or I should not sleep for dread.

The twenty mattresses are firm,

the twenty eiderdowns soft,

but I just can't get comfortable

on this padded loft.

What is that lump?

I'm sure that I can feel

a rock under my back,

hard and sharp, and real.

What do they mean by putting me here?

Is this some kind of test?

They'll never see the princess in me,

if I get no beauty rest.

April 2002

Fairy Tales #2

This one was part of a massive poetry writing night. I believe I wrote four or five in one evening, though I did go back and edit liberally later. This picture's colors didn't translate well, the spray is supposed to be blue, not yellow, and the background should be grey, oh well.

Little Mermaid

I have no voice to speak my love;

the price I paid to stand by your side.

I must die unless love is returned,

but you have chosen another bride.

There is but one hope left for me

if I am to return to my home in the sea.

I must stab your sleeping heart

with the Sea Witch's cruel knife

and you blood drip on my human legs,

to return to my mermaid life.

But I love you

so I can't.

Formless now, I return to the sea,

my loving spirit in the churning foam.

So feel the spray as a kiss from me,

the mermaid who couldn't go home.

April 2002