Young Writers Society

Yep, we're back to fairy tales this year.

I feel like I need to add some context to this project. It is a continuation of my NaPo last year, Rumplestiltskin and other hungry men, which was a retelling of multiple fairytales focused on female experiences. One of the plotlines that resonated with me the most was Cinderella and this narrative of her life after she is whisked away by Prince Charming. This is hardly a new narrative; I've seen and read multiple retellings with this premise, but I want to focus on the transition from peasant girl to queen and how this one would feel more isolating, especially when framed in the historical context of the primary purpose and role of a queen, which was to furnish her husband and the kingdom with heirs. I imagine this is a very heavy realization and would taint the maternal experience, so I thought it'd be interesting to explore Cinderella trying to adjusting to being a queen, wife, and mother, and how all of these components of her identity would intersect.

I hope with this project I am able to expand on maternal ambivalence and the complicated reality of fairy tales in a way that is fresh but authentic.

She carries the future, her ladies-in-waiting
tell her as they watch in awe each morning
as her belly swells and ripens like a melon in the summer.

She finds it curious, the worship
glazing their eyes as her corset stretches
tighter over her expanding waistline when
only a year ago she wore the rags instead
of the heavy fabrics they’ve cocooned her in.

When the maids leave her, she turns to the side
To trace the new contours her body has carved,
This strange new hill growing into a mountain
That will cradle a kingdom the way her body
cradles this new life budding inside of her.

It scares her, the weight of it all
but it pleases the prince and His ego
swells with her stomach, and when winter
thaws into spring, the prince makes the announcement
to the court, Wine spilling from his goblet,
like the tears that drift down her cheeks
in the dark, So gently, she isn’t sure they’re real
until she tastes the saltiness on her lips like kisses.

she'd swore she'd never go back
and yet the carriage rattles
carries her to the place she
reluctantly called home

but homesickness chokes her
like ribbons of smoke twined
around her lungs and she nearly
laughs as she realizes the cruelty
of her stepsisters and stepmother
calloused her for the court's cruelty
masquerading as kindness

the rumors and gossip follow her
clinging like shadows and she finds
that she prefers her family's brand
of cruelty because at least it was honest

behind the gleaming gates, she knows
the palace is only a maze of thorns and barbs
and she is more tangled than a rabbit
caught in a hunter's snare and she's yet
learned how to free herself before the wolves come

The clock doesn’t strike midnight 
When she arrives amongst the stillness
Of the stars and the snow .
When she knocks on the door,
Her stepmother stands, stoically unsurprised
Cinderella is no longer the queen consort
 when the Prince slid the shoe on her foot
She is a girl, a child, and she is scared.

But life at the palace has sculpted her face 
and the remnants of baby fat 
that padded her cheeks melted like snow 
and the surprise on her stepmother's face 
hardens into something more familiar-envy.

Ohh you've got some beautiful sound devices going on in all these poems! Lots of lovely alliteration and assonance ^^ Especially in this last poem, so many 's' words - "stillness / Of the stars and the snow", "Her stepmother stands, stoically unsurprised", "slid the shoe", "she is scared", "surprise on her stepmother's face" - it creates a really nice sound and flow (and being someone who has synesthesia, all the 's' words are a gorgeous deep blue colour so it looks very pretty in my mind <3)

Also love the last couplet of your first poem "So gently, she isn't sure they're real / until she tastes the saltiness on her lips like kisses" -> that's such a sad and poignant image <3

The tone and voice of the narrator, Cinderella, feels consistent and is developing really nicely in these poems, as well! I'm getting a lot of lost/lonely/what-am-I-doing-here/I-want-to-go-home vibes.

Keep up the awesome work! I can't wait to read more of these c: