032223b

Lovey Dovey

Rescued and forced to marry,
but she had been rescued,
and life was OK:
food, shelter, music and dancing, etc.

Then the prince got hooked on gambling—
cards, dice, horses, you name it;
ran through the treasury,
started selling off livestock,
land and timber, her jewels,
even the crown and scepter.
Let the servants go and sold the castle
to some nouveau riche oil “baron.”

Snow White had to find work
to keep the family fed—
seamstress, cook, laundress;
went to night school for metalwork.

The crystal ceiling,
hard to break through,
but after her apprenticeship,
she set up her own shop,
making boot scrapers, horse shoes,
decorative railings;
original sculptures took off,
sold for mucho dinero
in boutiques in the arts quarter;
the “baron” bought several;
she couldn't keep up with orders.

The prince, an embittered drunk,
died in a street brawl one night.

She raised the family solo:
one kid in Cambridge,
another at Heidelberg,
they were doing alright.
She had many suitors of course,
but she wasn't looking,
not then, maybe not ever,
it was all good.