*****
looking back now
the original tv musical cinderella
was almost too squeaky clean
to even stand
but to this enchanted little girl
with buck teeth
bad hair and
terminal zits
neck to hairline
ear ro ear
in the american 1960’s it was
pure magic!
no one
but no one
could have beat waif-like
magically ash-smudged
oh so doe-eyed leslie ann
at that part
ever
no way
no how
she never looked half as
pretty all dressed up
for that ball
as she did in those
rags and ashes, either
bet he made her
take it all off again afterward
showed her how to
let her hair down
have a little fun in life again
did it in fine style too
from the look of him
good for him
remember… that song
all the village women sang
when they first discovered
the ‘handsome prince,’
‘prince charming,’ was
coming to their very own town
and looking for a bride at that?…
“i wish i were an older girl,”
all the preteens sang
prancing about before mirrors
in their older sisters’
too-large finery
“i wish i were a younger girl,”
responded the mavens, their
chins dreamily on their hands
gazing away
from all the mirrors
but every girl
of any age
who was outside the box watching
that show of course was instantly
and magically transformed
to just leslie’s age
so to the buck toothed little girl
the maidens and mavens
seemed very funny, but
these days
i kinda know what they meant
if i were only a (much) younger girl
a little less of a poet
weighed about twenty pounds more
and hadn’t cropped off all the hair
i might have let down
so long long ago
brother, we woulda
rocked
the
house
*****
The poet/editor of this website is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level. Contributions may be made at:https://www.gofundme.com/are-you-a-patron-of-the-arts
