by Nancy Yates
Suspended in that time and place,
in sombre dark and heavy space,
Beauty sleeps and waits for her bright
Prince to come along,
to give her back her light, her life,
she waits to be transformed,
to be his Queenly wife.
Then one fine day, the Prince appears
and Beauty opens eyes and smiles
and knows
he’s there for her,
an end to all her sleepy woes.
He leans to kiss her upturned nose
but sneezes loud and undergoes
a curious change of heart and mind.
He stares and blurts (he’s quite unkind)
“Your makeup’s worn,
your silk dress torn,
your glass case musty
the castle dusty as can be
you’ve put on weight, it’s clear to see.
No doubt, just lying around for centuries
has dimmed your suitability
to be the kind of lovely spouse
who’d serve and keep a tidy house.”
While she’s astonished and less groggy,
her suitor looks more froggy
every moment she hears him speak.
But now she’s done with prince and frog.
She’ll seek, with her retriever dog,
a magic portal to the Mortal
World, and find
a brand of man
who’s princely on command.
Nancy Yates took a poetry class some time ago at JCC and thought it would be fun to send a few poems to Voices for consideration. She now considers herself published.