childhood

                      (from my Cinderella poems)

childhood

before the sisters came
she never wondered princes
at her hand.
a village boy
could common, catch and coax

her flight
from modest life
to modest life.

gowns were linen
shirt and skirt.
willow-slippered sabots
fitted feet to floor.

nothing more was left
to need or want.

she drew water
to soup and broth,
cut cloth
to cuff and hem.
swept ashes every evening

and barefoot
cobbled dreams to bed
bound to sleep
and silence in her head.