Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales by Megan Duncan

I grew up like most kids

In kingdoms far, far away

Where knights rescued fair maidens

And evil doers lurked in underground liars

And the underdog always won in the end

Because it wouldn’t make sense any other way

Happy endings became expectations

My castle had three bedrooms and two cats

A dog and a red fish

With the king and queen reigning over all

With a baby prince and I, well,

I was the princess

And things went fairly well

Church on Sunday morning

School on Monday through Friday

I remember we used to go out to town many nights

And I’d sit in the backseat and stare at the stars

I remember one of my first theories on the world

That the moon was the king of the sky

And that the sun used to be his queen

And each tiny star was one of their children

What I didn’t quite understand, though

Was why they were apart

Why Moon had all the children

And Sun was always so alone

With only her cloud servants for company

I guess it was my first realization of unhappy endings

That they must’ve had a fallout

I would wonder if the stars were happy

I wondered if any of them were happy

And I’d wish on them in hopes everything would be okay

I’ve heard it said that children learn most from their parents

But I often question that

Do I behave based off what I’ve seen them do?

I try to be patient

I try to be kind

And respectful, quiet, and out of the way

I don’t believe I picked up on my personality

From dear mom and dad

Instead, I learned how to not be like them

I remember being much younger

And hearing the yelling and screaming

All the crying and crashing

I would always try to pretend,

Always ran away to my imaginary land of make believe

Where I was famous and people loved me

I was a singer, a writer, and a performer all in one

I’d get interviewed about my new, upcoming movie

I’d sing my newest hit song

And would work on my best-selling novel

Still, I couldn’t say in my fairy tale forever

And, eventually, I stopped going there

I grew up, faced reality

Daddy didn’t leave the kingdom to fight a Cyclops

He turned out to be a lying b*****d

And I had none of his blood

Mommy also had her secrets

And I met my real king

King of Empty Promises

And the poor prince was caught in the middle

Of grown up things and fighting

He was too young to understand

But not too young to hurt

So, the princess decided to grow up

When her body was still fairly small

And learned the secrets of the older and supposedly wiser

But she had a few secrets of her own

She grew up into a young woman

Plagued with evil eyes that burned in her own head

Eyes that made her see things in the mirror

Things that she didn’t want to see

She was sick to the stomach, afraid of mealtime

Still, she had many friends who she played with at night

With silvery, shiny bodies and a mean bite

She painted with crimson paint on metal canvases

Her songs ones of adversity and regret

And she sings in the dark

And writes for only herself

But still acts every day

Wearing a mask of smiles

She’s a broken record

And repeats the same line

“I’m fine, I’m fine

I swear that I’m fine”

She grew up in reality

She stopped reading fairytales

She stopped wishing on the mourning stars in the night sky

And stopped worrying about Moon and Sun

Because they were silly stories for children

So she traded in the title “princess”

And decided to not have a name at all

I’m not the only one like this

Every day, the same thing happens

One person reads a story

With dreams of happy ever afters

While another sets aside such petty things

And just wants to make it through today

There’s a hierarchy in the real world

The kings and queens on top

And the order continued

With princes and princesses

Heroes and heralds

Knights, fair maidens, and jesters

And we were the outcasts

The homeless and town drunks

Who sat in the shadows and watched everyone else

Live out the stories we only could dream of

Because far, far away

Was so far out of our reach

And the lucky ones would hitchhike

Jumping into passing train cars

Those folks would never be heard from again

They were legends

Though whether they made it or not

Was a totally different story

I just want to hop onto a high place

And scream at the top of my lungs

That we all deserve our own happy stories

Even if just for a moment

The ones that seem bound between endless pages

That can never be ripped out

And put inside our blank spots

We can’t find our purpose

What English teaches strive to extract

From printed word and young minds

Maybe we should look closer

Read between the lines

Because we have to be here for a reason

Are our destinies yet to be fulfilled?

Where is our prophecies?

As someone once said,

“How can you hold your ground

If everyone wants to bury you beneath it?”

Can they all be right?

We are the voices in the background

Our echoes no more than faint whispers

Silently beginning a story

Saying our “Once upon a time”

And hoping

We didn’t reach

The End

Still, the stories are only as real

As we make them to be

And if we never believed in the first place

Where would we be now?