In the borderlands are wooden glens
where troll men stump on hollow legs,
and wait for the pretty faced prince
to come with sword and horse
in need of trophies to convince
some foreign king of his cause.
He’ll trade his sack of skulls
for a wife he’s not yet met
but been told of in fairy tales,
in tavern songs
and children’s rhymes.
He knows her hair is gold,
her lips ruby, eyes sapphire
tongue silent
to go with a quiet mind.
But he’ll do as princes do
when winning princess from their father’s.
He’ll forget to show kindness
to the widow on the road
for she is ugly, dirty, worthless,
and the witch will curse his blindness
and bless his wife not yet met
with a tongue and lips
not made of gems.
In the end he’ll find a queen,
new upon her father’s throne
without the need of troll remains
or princes bearing their bones.
She’ll return him to the forest glens
where troll men stump on hollow legs
and suck the marrow from little men
whose swords lie broken, fractured, bent
at the feet of a woman without gems
whose tongue passed final judgement.
It’s Day Eight for NaPoWrimo which means we are now a quarter of the way through the month. Today’s prompt is to “write a poem where mysterious and magical things occur”. I was trying to channel Christina Rossetti with this piece somewhat as her poem Goblin Market seemed to fit the prompt perfectly. NaPoWriMo’s prompt also fitted in quite nicely with today’s Daily Post Prompt: Twart
Please let me know what you think and if you like the recording included at the end. I’m still not certain about recording my poems and I’m not a fan of how my voice sounds but it’s good practice for preforming the poems.
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