Once upon a time when we were small we used to believe them all

But as we grew we sadly knew that most would end badly…

Sleeping Beauty dreamt until she woke just in time to see the prince

Was not at all what he was meant to be and she was surrounded

By men who were dwarfs in more ways than one

Cinderella eventually got her fella despite her mean stepsisters’

Attempts to keep her poor and make her scrub the floor forever more…

Red Riding Hood tried to be good but she got bored with skipping blithely through the woods

So instead she went to bed to wait like bait for a savage wolf with no baggage to ravage her

Humpty Dumpty fell too heavily to recover and after that felt too fragile to find himself another lover

Rumplestiltskin spun such a load of old fool’s gold upon his stool

That the naieve young princess was most distressed

That she’d allowed herself to be so easily misled to believe he was wise and not a tool

Jack climbed the beanstalk into a cloud on good advice, never to be seen again

It's enough to make most of us think aloud at least twice about mice and men

So we decided at last to amuse ourselves and write our own moral tales

To keep us warm at night and to be our own heroes who’d never lose nor fail

But would love and fight our own demons and dragons so we might at last prevail

And finally win the prize, as we emerge from the labyrinth of lies, of love - the holy grail.

©JewelRainbow2009