In search of her happily ever after.
No evil step-mother
Gifting poison-laced apples,
No band of merry dwarf brothers
Hi-ho-ing off to work.
Just a tyrannical father
We’ll call King Charming.
A master of unpredictability,
King Charming loved to dance.
He perfected the two-faced tango,
The my way or the highway mamba,
And the shame and blame shimmy.
His browbeating bossa nova was the best in all the kingdom;
His persecution polka a true wonder to behold.
Alas, our little Princess Wannabe
Had two left feet, and although she tried her best,
She was never good enough to please the King.
Never good enough.
Never good enough.
In fact, so disappointed was King Charming by Her Klutziness
He locked her in a tower barely wide enough to do the twist.
But lo and behold! Our heroine was not to be defined
By her limbo limitations. She knew how to do hair!
Her fast fingers flew to her magnificent multi-foot mane
And she began to plait. Hour upon hour she braided,
Stopping only briefly to order some extensions on Amazon.
When at last they came, she finished her rope
And repelled down the side of the tower
All G.I. Jane like.
Good enough.
Better than good enough.
King Charming died a lonely old man.
And Girlfriend, Princess ditched the Wannabe
And lived Ecstatically, Enthusiastically, Emphatically
Ever After.
Author Bio:
Ann Weil wrote poetry as a child and is now returning to her first love after a career as a K-12 teacher and university professor. She writes because she must-- it's as strong a drive as drinking that first cup of tea in the morning. After surviving the fairly stodgy publish or perish experience of academia, Ann now revels in the chance to be playful via her poetry. She is inspired by things real and imagined, the ordinary and the extraordinary. Ann believes a truly good poem should make the reader both think and feel, preferably in unexpected ways. She loves a poem that can make the reader laugh in one stanza and cry in the next, or vice versa! She has a B.A. in special education, an M.A. in educational psychology and an Ed.D. in educational studies. Her first published poem will appear later this month in Amethyst Review.