Once Upon a Time and Once More

Fairy tales can be surprisingly cruel at the root.

Convulsing against the chains
of the particularly disastrous certainty of
”not the time”,
shackled by unrequitedness
A confounding kind of strain
to enjoy a good thing
before it is over

Daylight grows shorter
the murmurs of those
gentle, shadowed wings
draw near
to reveal
the hopeful awe of a fool
dancing the night away
in smoldering irony;
as if one could shoulder the consequences
of an errant move
over the threshold –