Photo: Corwin Willard
Old Wives Tales
“So, then, what about fairy tales?” You roll your eyes,
“Old wives’ tales, one and all.” Yes, I say, YES, YES, YES!
Consider, if you please, the peasant who refused to join
the common reign and thus defeated
the phantom imprisoning her prince. Do you know
the Grimm truth about the child, forced
to keep a promise rashly given? No kiss, no,
she threw that trickster frog against the wall.
And don’t forget the Italian beauty who knew her head,
when shorn, would nix a brokered marriage, wreck
plans to steal her creative fire. They are potent
inoculants, one and all, against that plague
of cold calculation, advised in “The Prince,”
given to little minds, sugar-coated in fanciful
tales; the crones, bless them, had
learned the high art of subversion.
“So, then, what about fairy tales?” You roll your eyes,
“Old wives’ tales, one and all.” Yes, I say, YES, YES, YES!
Consider, if you please, the peasant who refused to join
the common reign and thus defeated
the phantom imprisoning her prince. Do you know
the Grimm truth about the child, forced
to keep a promise rashly given? No kiss, no,
she threw that trickster frog against the wall.
And don’t forget the Italian beauty who knew her head,
when shorn, would nix a brokered marriage, wreck
plans to steal her creative fire. They are potent
inoculants, one and all, against that plague
of cold calculation, advised in “The Prince,”
given to little minds, sugar-coated in fanciful
tales; the crones, bless them, had
learned the high art of subversion.
