The fairy tales of our youth
are a pack of plastic parables.
Tales we tell to trick children
into believing the stories of
midnight romancing,
epic duels,
flying reindeer,
and running away from the stepmother.

These lies build of a shield
like the one that stood up against
the dragon's flames.
The protect us from
evil,
hate,
disease,
death,
and everything else we blame on Pandora.
When the shield of lies shatters,
innocence is incinerated
and our lives are bombarded
with a volley of elfish arrows.
The fairy tales of our youth
keep us in a home-made
Utopia.