Not for the faint of heart

If you want a fairy tale life, you must
be willing to pay the fairy tale price, which
can be mighty stiff.

The lesson from fairy tales is that
you're gonna get screwed
up the backside
more than once on the
quest for true love.

Ever thought about what
"hard won" means? You start young
and hopeful and probably blond,
but youth and hope are the least of
what you'll give.

You'll climb those last
steps to the bower too weary
to lift your sword, hair scorched
off by dragons, leathered, weathered, and
scarred from years
of fighting thorny thickets under a
hot, hot sun, worn to rags and
muscle from long and too long without
food or rest, coughing and fevered from
walking the last two hundred miles
in the rain.

The hero and heroine probably
both have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
and may wake shaking night after night;
they are almost too sore
to touch.
They fall
into each other's arms because they're
too tired to stand alone
anymore.

They fall, but they fall together
softly and it is sweet, ever so sweet,
because they know each
their own and the other's
worth.

2006

Thoughts and Comments

I performed this piece at the April Poetry Slam Play Offs in Eugene.

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