A girl in scarlet spills from a giant golden birdcage

Her face white and set as she stumbles toward the sea cliff’s edge

Where below, the water whirls like a wishing well

Oh, for a wish!

She peers over, her frozen white toes curling over the rock blade

Into water teal and chilling

Her tears mingle with the rain

As the wind whips her hair into a fury

Atop her head, a myrtle crown glistens,

DUTY, it bellows

She listens through a storm of unshed silver tears

Blurring a gilt-framed painting of her future in the sky above

A marriage, a queen, a fate

A besotted king nodding to her every word

What more could she ask for?

LOVE, she screams into the wind

As in her mind, her errant feet float down another road

To him.

And at the thought, her marble cheeks warm to soft petals

And her heart thuds like a trapped bird

Her heart flies to the forest, where in his embrace

There lives a whole world

The world he created

Through the magic carpet ride of his stories

Oh, for a wish!

She wants to be in that forest again

Not bumping down an endless road to her death day

There, beneath the arms of blush-pink wisterias

His lips would quiver with stories she’d never heard

And in the glow of fireflies, he would cast the spell of a story

In them, she would wrap herself in the colors of the rainbow

Not sit frozen-hearted in her golden cage

In her pocket are his letters

Creased from being read in silent whispers

Standing on the cliff, she clutches them in her hands

like white paper cranes

Knowing if she lets them fly into the wind,

She would be admitting there is no god

Oh, for a wish!

In the fairy tales she had read, help had always come

A frog disguised as a prince, a fairy godmother

But as she stands, waiting, no one came

She is so very alone

Two roads diverge atop a stormy cliff

Which path shall she take?

A voice pierces her consciousness

“You called?”

She jumps

As a large silver eye blinks in the sky

Silver, it is. Old, it is.

Then shuts in a flash

A face forms around the silver eye, then a body

Of lithe liquid glass like a delicate chandelier

Her smile is alluring--an old soul in a maiden’s glass vase

Preserved unnaturally in time

But the most disturbing are the empty souls of hades,

Singing in their mistress’ stoned braids

She hears a voice in her mind:

For a price I can change your flesh to gold

Or turn a maiden from young to old

Few humans love the skin they are given

Your wish to change can be forgiven

Black fear fizzles on her tongue

But she swallows the stung

Embracing only that floating feeling of the undreamed of

Is this her chance to love?

The price is just this fair trade

Your face is what I will be paid

Trade it in for another so you can choose

The life you wish for, and one to lose

The princess doesn’t think, she only feels

She forgets the Queen’s warning about witches’ deals

“Yes. YES!

Any price I’m willing to pay!

You can have my face today!”

Silver Eyes chuckles

Is that final? she asks through her angelic mask

The princess pauses as her adrenaline recedes

Her mind says no but her heart has needs

Duty—

Screw Duty.

Listen—

She’s done listening.

No one can see her; no one cares

This is no time for a princess’s airs

“Yes,” her lips part. “I want what you have to give

As of now, this is no way to live.”

Silver Eyes smiles

Very well, close your eyes…

The princess feels a tingle in her hair

Hopefully it would not be bare

Maybe she should have specified she didn’t want an ugly face

But now her wish is too late to erase

She longs for a mirror, but there’s only the sea

Where she runs down the path quite excitedly

And in a tidepool filled with fish

She sees the consequences of her wish

Her golden hair is now black wires

Her eyes, once emerald, are orange wildfires

Her shock ricochets from her toes to her head

As she begins to feel real dread

How would her love feel now she’s no longer pretty?

Maybe it’s enough that she is witty?

She sheds her myrtle crown and blood-red wedding gown

She drops it into the sea where it can never be found

And in her petticoat she sets off for a new road

For she knows her prince is no toad

With a hopeful heart and a twinge of fear

She longs for her true love to draw near

On bloodied feet she runs through the thickets’ moans

Past the biting crimson rose bushes she loathes

She moves, as if captivated by spells

Toward the theater where her lover dwells

In the wind, she hears him calling her from afar

He is her Polaris, her North Star

And though her feet are torn to shreds

In her heart she feels no dread

Only an incredible lightness of being

Knowing it is him she would soon be seeing

Before she knows it, she is standing on the grassy knoll

At the tip of his amphitheater where he extolls

The sight of him fills her heart with fire

He is the one and only she desires

She watches as he plays Romeo from afar

As her heart awaits love like a door ajar

And as soon as the play is done

From the stage’s wings she did run

“It’s me, my darling! Your princess, my love!”

His grey eyes stare back blankly like the wings of a dove.

“Come, my love. The time is nigh.

When loving means to do or die

I have given all to be right here

Why are you not drawing near?”

Her heart trembles as he stares at her with blank contempt

Is this all her sacrifice had meant?

She surges past the crowd of his well-wishers to clasp his hands

Surely now he would say their wedding banns

But instead of his familiar touch and a sweet reunion

She receives not even the smallest communion

“Who are you?” he asks with hard, contemptuous eyes

“Certainly I would never align with such a poor prize.

My bride shall be King Lowry's child

A damsel with power and beauty that beguile.”

“My love, it is I.  I am standing right here

I changed my face so before you I could appear.

You know Father betrothed me to another man

And that union I could not stand.

So I made a deal with a local witch

My face for hers for this love switch.”

His face stiffens at the horrible news

As she gazes at him, terribly confused.

“So now you have nothing...not even your face?

And no gold or status for our table to grace?”

She slowly nods her head with a “no.”

“But my love we have us to grow.”

He stopped silent, then gave a sharp laugh

“You think such things can forge a life path?

Go away.  You disgust me.  Simply looking at you gives me chills.

I think seeing you for a lifetime would make me ill.”

Her heart ceases as her soul falls into her bloodied feet

Who knew this man would be such a cheat?

She had given him her all

And for her all gotten nil

The kisses they had shared were sewn in her heart

And with her own hands she tears them apart

She sees him now for who he was

And nothing could make her unsee because

Into her collection of happily ever afters

Her hope had dissipated into the rafters

In her cut and bruised heart

Excuses and abuses rip her apart

His million oaths are terrible jokes

Her whole love had been a cheater’s hoax

She rakes her nails upon her face

In the silence there is no space

No. No! NO! it cannot be

She had given away her life for free

The visions of his lips brushing her hair

Mocks her now in the blankness of his stare

And in the air she hears a silvery laugh

A large silver eye and a very old staff

You gave him all, he gave you nil

Now what will you do for good or ill?

With an upturned face, she gazes up at the sky

At the witch who had shown her beyond his mask of lies

“Please!” she calls up to the heavens as she sinks to her knees

“Please save me from myself, dear witch, oh please!”

The voice comes quickly, it is rather calm

It cradles her like a leaf in a palm

You wish to return?

To the sorrow you wished to sever?

To the bondage you wished to escape?

To the crown you wished to leave?

To the prince you wished to betray?

“Please… I beg of thee...”

I shall return you to your rightful place

But this is the price you must embrace

Upon your death your soul shall be mine

Trapped in my braids for eternity’s time

With a flick of a brush the princess’s crown reappears

Her scarlet wedding gown, her footmen--all she never held more dear

And once again, her life wraps in different chains

Not the chains of betrayal but that of a rein

But isn’t life a series of thorns and rain

And just a bit of sunlight flickering between shadows again?

She squares her shoulders and raises her chin

As her old life she assumes with a morbid grin