This Started Out a Love Song...

A romantic tale about a princess
who kissed a toad, who turned into
a prince, and they both lived, happily...
Until the love song started to grow stale...
its auburn hair – turn grey; sprouting
from every orifice, and it grew deceitful –
creeping in and out of alleyways,
between fish-heads, and the odds
and sods of last week’s takeaways.

It began to hang its head – reminisce
about the old days when it had wings,
and flew, black-cloaked, across
a morning moon; how it would picnic
by a stream; eat hard-boiled eggs –
drink camomile tea from a thermos,
and when its hand held another’s...
had boundless knowledge of music,
of geography, and astronomy.

Its eyes shone brightly then...no sign
of pernicious webs to cloud its sight...
no drooping jowls – dripping saliva.
Until the time its metamorphosis set in,
and it saw itself as ugly – venturing out
only after dark – crouching in the shadows...
reviled by its own repugnancy –regretting
what it had had, and lost. It knows
it must move on...evolve.

Considers the fox...the unicorn,
the dodo, and the rose...yet
what good is a rose that opens
too readily, quickens – so dies?
Better – a field of poppies; look
deep into their black, mascara-
lashed eyes...and become
the sweetest elegy ever sung
to the tune of red.