Thimbleful of Thumbelina~

This is my thimble

It is tiny

But large enough to hold

A thousand pieces of confetti

And a single wedding band

 

My life was traded for food

I can understand hunger

What is a barleycorn

After all

To a starving woman

 

I grew a walnut cradle

From the bark of a tree

Being tiny

I could never get warm

Except in a c curve

Around my own body

 

I, small

Vulnerable

It was toad and his entourage

Who came first

To test my tiny fists

But I had the butterfly peel her magik

From the inside

Of my right wrist

And the koi fish to the rescue

Leaping from the base of my skull

Swallowing old toad down

In a spray of blood

 

On a lily pad for eons

Adrift on a stream

While men went about forging hard things

And leaving magik to scribbles on the rocks

For study

Under spectacles

I was pleasantly undisturbed

In a rip van wrinkle theory

Until a stag beetle staggered by

But spat me quickly back into my skin

When his compatriots

Covered their eyes;

Even beetles have a sense of inherent

Taboo

 

Winters were the most bitter

Frost hands

Icicles in my hair

The field mouse found me frozen to his door

Took pity

Pulled me through the straw

To dream near the fireplace

Where a swallow reclined as well

Healing broken wings I caressed

into solid forms, each and every night

And things were good

Until the spring thaw

When mole peeked his nose

Through the earth

And blindly

Snatched

At my awakening fertility

 

Hidden beneath swallow’s wing

We took flight

To a land

Where Thumbelina’s were the norm

And here I found a wedding band

Placed it in my thimble

With every scrap of confetti

Covered in scribbles

Of stories in fragments

Waiting to happen

 

And no, I married no prince

For princes are fairy tales

And Thumbelinas

Are, sadly

The norm

 

 

 

copyright:2011vssmd/amusemusepress

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Reviews

[Kerry O'Connor]

One of my favourite tales of childhood, the tiny girl asleep in the walnut shell, adrift on the lily-pad, escaping two bad marriages and knowing the soul-mate swallow who showed her the path to freedom... fairy prince (Meh)

I loved your metaphoric twists which brought such life to the archetypes:
I had the butterfly peel her magik

From the inside

Of my right wrist

And the koi fish to the rescue

Leaping from the base of my skull

Swallowing old toad down

In a spray of blood

[duddbudda]

great world-weary voice telling such fantastic tales
I started to say why i loved each stanza but it's much quicker to note what I'd change; nothing
glad to have found your work

[Cafe Reader]

You, Selene, are an original. You are the reality of the fairy tale.


But I had the butterfly peel her magik
From the inside
Of my right wrist
And the koi fish to the rescue
Leaping from the base of my skull
Swallowing old toad down
In a spray of blood


Reality collides with fantasy.

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

Such a dream like quality to the poem and it is saying that you are strong on your own and don't need someone in your life to be important... your imagination is astronomical.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

Such a dose of magic along with a dose of reality..........beautiful!

[Tommy]

Yes, you are a great weaver of fairy tale and reality; Happily ever after, and alone this time around. I like the twist. A single wedding band kept in memory maybe?

Great Write Selene!
RLG,
Tommy

[LA Lorena]

Your writing never ceases to amaze and astound me. You have such a way of being able to tell it like it is...life is a fairy tale without perfect endings, full of ogres, big bad wolves and other countless realities. Your use of imagery and metaphors is without equal, you weave a brilliant tale with every story. I'm so glad to have found your poetry!

[Lachenille Papillion]

You weave the fabric of you within this ode to the old tale... I see the hard road behind you both, and the ending already told in his voice nestled beside the ending you write for yourself... I see the never ending band entwined around the artist in your soul, the commitment to your voice abounding from all those scribbled scraps of paper the artist, the writer, the mind, the woman that is you creates... and I find it all to be an expression of pure beauty... hugs

[OT]

ahh the unfairy tales continue haha so well you manipulate the stories into your own contorted versions - that bittersweet touch - "and no, I married no prince, for princes are fairy takes, and thumbelinas are sadly the norm" - no fairy tales in normality - magick makes the tale, otherwise it's just another old story!!

[Quinn Blackburn]

Bottled lighnting, you breathe gritty life into the form of fairytales

[Robin]

you are the Queen of 'what it is' land ~