I know a few posts ago I mentioned that I won an online weekly writing challenge + $100 from Prose.com – it meant SO much to me not only to win, but to actually make money from something I have an absolute blast doing. I can’t think of many better ways to start the year! But I wanted to share my poem that won the challenge with you guys. I sat down and wrote it all out stream-of-consciouness-style – I didn’t hesitate or edit until the last paragraph. The line “You were the beauty, but I was the beast” was what came to mind and what I really wanted to write, but I couldn’t rhyme anything with beast without sounding forced, so I switched the words around a little, and I ended up actually really liking the ending. Here’s my poem, Tales:

The clock struck midnight
The pumpkin changed
The shoe is missing
Stepmother’s deranged

The princess sleeps
Dragons breathe fire
Thorny walls grow
While the prince climbs higher

The apple bitten
While miners cry
Her white skin sparkles
While her insides die

A watery home
Abandoned for land
Atlantis forgotten
For a two-legged man

The tower loomed
No sign of a stair
The prince’s way up
A ladder of hair

The carpet soars high
A genie obeys
And a prince is an urchin
Who just changed his ways

I was a beast
But the beauty was you
And I’m reminded each night
That fairy tales aren’t true.