Once upon a time --
Isn’t that how a story starts?
I remember these words,
A soothing voice
Forming  phrases, wrapping around me,
I drift off to sleep.

Memories begin to blur,
Years pass and stories overlap,
The words losing their magic
Stories that were once told,
Now echo in my dreams.

And now;
Those books collect dust.
The pages begin to yellow.
But the stories will always remain.

The princess still sleeps in the tower,
And another innocently eats an apple.
The knight still slays the fearsome dragon,
And the prince marries his bride.

The stories that shaped my childhood,
That taught me to dream
One day will be taken down from the shelf,
And my children will watch as the pages turn once again,
As I read to them,
In hopes that they will fall in love with them
As I have.