retelling
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PYGMALION & GALATEA
In the days of old, humans worshiped art
while the gods watched from above.
Poets opened their veins and bled out rivers of red desire
They robbed her of her darkness
Gave her ebony hair and an apple to bite
Made poison her downfall
And a kiss her salvation
They forgot what was real
Now she sings songs on Broadway
Eden was never a symbol of perfection
Aphrodite was never a symbol of love
Love to the Greeks meant madness, meant that someone had fallen too far
When she was a little girl
Without her cloak
Without her crimson-red shield
She was innocent, full of light, full of life
Once, in the vast history of the Earth,
A kind-hearted prince Phillip, owner of jade eyes and silk tunics to match,
Found himself convinced of the worst crime possible:
They really tried to get me to go to the ball
"Without you, Cinderella, it won't be fun at all!"
"Ha! With my left feet? I'm not interested in that."
Then my godmother got interested and next to me she sat.
(How Rumpelstiltskin came to be, and then, how he came not to be)
Not too long ago, and not so far away
a boy sat alone watching other kids play.
He went to great ends
I had paused in the corridor, faltering
in my crystal shoes, my gut flipping with
a cold sense of unbelonging.
The floor was lucent gold and smoother
Once Upon A Time...
There was a princess named Rapunzel
Born of a Black father and a White mother, Rapunzel was praised for her curly hair
Natural curls
