Cinderella Ascending

author's note:

The Cinderella story came to me via a coloring book, before I could read--or for that matter, even color between the lines.

It may have been the Disney version.  In any case, that Cinderella told me much about the value of humility.


CINDERELLA ASCENDING

Long ago, I was told
that the woman in the cinders
felt put-upon
up to the moment
of her deliverance.

However...
wouldn't someone so beautiful
not only accept her lot
but actually find pleasure
in sweeping the walk--?--
      tending to their fractures
      she'd give those pure stones
      her heart.

She'd learn to tolerate her sisters
--their obstreperous, obstructionist ways--

through endurance, she'd rise above--
and so, be able to look down upon them
with love instead of frustration.

Thus, she ran from the palace--
      even as her royal servant
      begged her back--
      truthfully telling her
      she'd earned the gold--
      that the horses
      only masqueraded as mice--

nonetheless, she didn't want release
from a life that had provided
so many blessings.

But Change rejects the pleading
of the strong--
metamorphosis
is irreversible.

And so, ever humble
she acquiesced
and thereafter, walked in shoes
that revealed who she truly was.

© 2011, Michael R. Patton
dreaming steps