The End of the Story

Is this where our story ends?
We won’t know
until we turn
the page.

When you recount
this fable we wrote,
what will you say?

Remember.
Words are fragile.
Unwrap each one with care.
Each has its own story.

Presence

It’s hard to fit in this room,

he said, what with the elephant here.

Everyone stared at him like

sheep gaze while grazing.

He squeezed his way past

but when conversation turned

to inconsequential subjects

another pachyderm arrived.

As conversation increased both

in volume and vapidity,

another pachyderm packed in

and then another, until

eventually he was pressed into

a corner, hidden by the herd

where his cries went unheard

and everyone wondered where

he had disappeared to.

April 28 -- Prince Charming

He was a Buddhist,

riding his meditation,

the horses hooves his mantra.

He breathed in rhythm with the trees.

The princess was an illusion.

The kiss a metaphor

for what he did not know.

And he, like others before him,

knew that where the story ends

is actually its beginning.

April 27 – Hansel and Gretel Go to College

She enrolled at a well-known liberal arts school.

Studied ethnology, folklore, myth

learned to decode symbols like wolf,

stepmother, wicked witch.

He chose culinary school.

Moved to the city.

Opened a bakery

specializing in gingerbread.

April 26 B. B. Wolf

I know you want me to be black.

I am gray.

A mixture between dark and light.

It’s where I live, like the forest itself,

sunlight and shadow cohabitating.

Sometimes though you have to watch your step.

It can be difficult to live in a world

always hungry for a villain,

instinct versus intelligence.

My money is on instinct all the way.

While I may or may not have threatened some pigs,

chased a basket of goodies along a path,

I never broke any laws.

Consider my actions “food shopping”

like the old ladies at market.

My name is whispered late at night,

come take a walk and hear it,

if you’re not afraid of the dark ….