Month of poetry #2: For Lucy

some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again -
he said, to the goddaughter caught in amber on the page
destined - or doomed? - to be the darling of the story forevermore

to grow, then shrink, then grow again
telescoping from past to future
from witch-cursed winter to lion-gold wild spring
hunter, hunted, smacked with salt spray on the deck of a quest ship
stalking hidden magicks and backing restoration wars
flung about among the stars and all their worlds; a heroine, yes,
courage mandatory, doubt impermissible
going forth, whether she will or no

and of course, foreshadowed, a vision of the way it finishes -
death is not the end, but the beginning
the first chapter is written when the storybook stops
the fairytale would have it so. and so he did believe it.
an eternity of pastoral and child-like delight, which sounds nice enough -

(perhaps, when she was 9).

- Kathy, 2/1/14