A sample of She Who Destroys the Light: Fairy Tales Gone Wrong
Rapunzel
She is
Gentle, fiery
Weary from the battles
While you are the mad surgeon
Picking at her wounds
Nursing them no more
Turning and twisting her truth
To feed her falsehoods.
Trust her when she tells you—
That like Rapunzel she can spin
your hatred into gold.
Your put-downs into her power.
Your ugly words into her
incentive.
And your sabotage into her success.
You will soon learn
to never underestimate
a woman who has a
track record
of proving
her enemies wrong.
Glass
I lay in the tomb of my own making
Spooning with the secrets I’d never told
Silence tasted golden on your lips and harsh to my ears
I stifled the truth and smiled through it all
A stranger on the cusp of madness
Whispered in my ear
as gentle as a butterfly wing
This isn’t a grave
She said
It’s a cocoon
It’s not death it’s life
Who knew rebirth could be more painful
More so than even
The last breath on the cross
Pan
Tell me about the boy who never grows old
His face ages but his tantrums never end
Should we call him
A lost boy
or a malicious man?
Stepsister
Push me over the edge
To the pinnacle of your hate
And there I’ll make a bed and learn to create
Kingdoms out of your thorns
Music out of your makeshift tales
Books out of your cruelty
Poetry out of your crimes
Art out of your wounds
rub the salt on my scars
To prepare my scarlet letters
as victories