Once Upon a Time

* Once Upon a Time poem

Too many "Once Upon a Times"

Were told to me

To shape my make believing

To leave me feeling

In my playtime

I needed to pretend I awaited saviors

That someday my prince would come

That I needed to be ready

With glossed lips

For True love's kiss

To make me come to life

To make me a wife, complete me

That only with the valor and strength

Of man on stead

Coming to rescue me

Could I ever rise from

Servent to Queen

Without understanding Queen

Really means...

A different type of service

To a man

To a land

To I only can
Because he made me into who I am

Once upon a times, taught me

That I was meant to be

Captured, trapped, held in attic and tower

and locked away with no key

And womyn looked so weak
And their beauty is what men seek

The only way strength was shown

Was if it meant we were

Evil in our place of power

Witches, twisted, and terrible
And deviously unbearable
In a fight to be the fairest since

they longed to earn affections and approval of

A Father, King or Prince

Mirrors needed to reassure us

to bring us happiness

We learned to scream and

Plead for help

To faint in fear

And to run

Until someone would save us

And recognize us as "The One"

That man dreamt up in his dreaming

Of a perfect womyn to make his own

So our wishes needed to be

for True Love's coming and knowing

And freedom was not something

We could have for ourselves,

It needed to be given the key to our chains

The answer to our pains

In play and make believe

All of this becomes truth

And as we leave behind our youth

We bring these ideas to our realities

Only after we were grown

And feeling alone

Could we find that

Prince charming is nowhere to be found

And we needed to wake up from slumber

And the sleep we played in as a child

And stayed in our growings

To really open our our eyes and see

That we have the power to

Find happiness past

What pages have told us

We were meant to be

That we could re-write these

Fairy tales and un-happily ever after stories