(no subject)

[synapticjava]

This is a persona poem, where we had to take the point of view of some fictional or mythological character and tell a story from their perspective. I chose to use Cinderalla (the real version, not the disney).


The Step-Daughter
I hated her,
this fair-haired
golden beauty of
a step-daughter.
With every pious smile
And every gracious bow
I plotted her demise.
Not to kill her –
oh no, not kill her –
but to make her
filthy life as miserable
as she made mine;
to stop her ivory smile,
to muddy some of the flush
in her too-rosy cheeks.
My own beautiful daughters
- dimwitted and wretched
though they may be –
at first loved her as their own.
But as her beauty grew
with each passing day,
so to did their hatred.
They learned to hate her
as I have always.
I threw her in the cinders,
made her sleep on the hearth
with only the rodents to keep
company with.
But still,
dressed in an ashen kirtle
and rouged with dirt and muck,
still that awful beautiful smile glowed,
still her golden hair shimmered,
still that positively obnoxious charm exuded.
I will never know
how she arrived at the festival
dressed better than even I,
in a silver dress and golden slippers.
I will never know
how she charmed and bedazzled
that drunken prince into choosing her,
into making her his queen.
But as I sit here,
plucking lentils out of the cinders,
muck and dirt on my face
with only the rodents,
and my own conniving daughters
to keep company with,
I wish to God I had never laid eyes on her,
this evil gorgeous step-daughter
who now watches over me
with a smile in her eyes
and a sneer on her lips,
laughing tenderly.
This ugly beautiful girl
who I have ruined.

Comments

[caviling]

Holy smokes--that ain't half bad. And by "ain't half bad" I mean that's some good poem.

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

Could you tell my professor that? He hated it. lol.

Thanks:)

[caviling]

Tell him I said he's stupid, and someday I'll take his job even though I have no creative writing credentials. Ooh, I know: my friend Lilian will take his job. She has an MFA, put in a year in a creative writing PhD program, and is now working toward a PhD in English. She wins prizes and stuff PLUS she's a decent human being. Yes. Lilian will take his job and we'll all laugh in his face.

[mwrgana.livejournal.com]

excellent stuff. Or, as we say in Cardiff " That's 'alf tidy, that is!" (For some uncomprehensible reason, Half-tidy is better than just Tidy)


Oh, btw - "so to did their hatred" should be "so too..." -missed that one, didn't you? *g*

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

Thank you, sugar:)

I caught that right after I posted it, hehe.

[tiger-lantern.livejournal.com]

I really like this!

Would it interest you to know the original slippers were made of feathers, and due to a translation mistake they became glass in the first English language version?

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that actually - I was going off the Grimm's version where the slippers were made of gold.

And thank you:)