The Fairy Godmother discusses the "happily ever-after" with her most
renowed client.

I
Fairy Godmother speaks ...
Hey, Babe, don't depend on love
for expensive carriages,
designer clothes,
and exclusive slippers.
Why didn't you talk instead of dance?
Agree on pre-schools and pre-nups?
Insist on keeping the catering and
cleaning businesses?
Hate to tell you, Cindy, but you
wasted the champagne.
You build happily-afters with burned
beans and budgets.
II
Cinderella talks to Charming...
Hey, Charming, let's get our own place.
There's a leak in the turret.
The man didn't show to clean the moat.
The cooks are on strike and the
ball room floor needs wax.

Let's make this pile of stones a
bed and breakfast, lead tours of the
dungeons, charge admission for the
changing of the guards, tell stories about the ancestors whose portraits
hide the cracks in the wall. Just talk and smile, Charming.

Come on, Charm!
I'm gonna teach you to change a
light bulb.
III
Godmother again...
Good man, Charming. Everyone says so.
Takes out the trash on Tuesday, mows
the lawn Saturdays if the neighbors
watch. Pays bills when a collector calls and talks so nice about you.
So, Cindy, why do you wowrk two jobs,
always send your kids to the park, keep your drapes closed?
Do the long sleeves hide bruises?
How did you break your nose, and arm
and wrist?

Charming says he's sorry. He just like
things right. Could you please
try a little harder?
IV
Cinderella suns herself with memories.
Glass slippers replaced by a cane,
carriage and Godmother now park bench
and pension check.
I drove a red Corvette (now repossessed)
typed novels on machines without a mouse (never sold a one)
married Prince Charming (shared him with the village).
I live better as a widow than a wife.