Sleeping Beauty

He kisses Sleeping Beauty

The word before the fall

You’ve changed and change back

And I don’t change at all

‘You’re a fucking wally,’ she said

‘Not right in the head.’

‘But’ with petted lip, he said,

‘I keep the castle picture- book clean

‘it’s not a lot of fun when someone else is queen’.

The floor begins to buckle

Plaster falls from the wall

The dark forest moves in

Cutting off flight

Cutting off light

Cold comfort

She bustles in the kitchen

Making hot cinnamon toast

That tickles her tongue

And sits on her fanny

And refuse to be

An ingénue and proper queen

Weak and needy

Home tutored in narcissistic smiles

Whose lineage reaches outer space

Laundry, sunshine spick and span

And whose husband’s fancy jackets packets a man

She likes a king to be big and bold

That’s how the story is told

Flatulent and fat comes as no surprise

Darker possibilities sometime arise

In the dark wood he wears a taffeta dress

To pull a virgin

To bull a virgin

A gentleman has his squires

Sleeping beauty and weeping beauty

As only a king can understand