Cinderella

"The clothes I wore

Just don’t fit my soul anymore."

My heart has outgrown my shoes

and my emotions are spilling

out of my shirt like cleavage.

My dreams have been weighed down

by all the rocks that have been thrown at my bedroom window.

So now I dream about riding away

in a pumpkin-turned-princess carriage

with my perfect Prince Charming

and we will live happily ever after.

But they say a dream is merely a wish your heart makes.

Well, my heart has been wishing for quite some time now

and I’m still stuck in this tiny little cottage

in this the middle of this tiny little village.

A place too small for it’s population,

A place where popularity is a necessity,

but God is an option.

This is where fairy tales are just books

in a world where nobody reads

and although I long to live in a land far, far away,

I am just the girl next door,

who can wish as many times as she wants,

but whose fairy godmother just never shows up.

And my name must taste good

Cause it’s always in somebody’s mouth

And those who talk about me

Only use the words “that girl”

That girl

The one with stringy brown hair

The one who wears too much makeup

The one who goes through each day

   pretending to be something she’s not.

But how do they know if I’m pretending

   if I’ve been pretending from the start?

My life has never known uphill

Because each time I fail to hold myself together

and my heart spills off of my sleeve

shattering on the ground,

I, once again, sweep up the pieces,

form makeshift ventricles

and place it gently back into my chest

to let it begin its next decline.

I am not perfect,

but I decided long ago

that I will always allow myself

to keep falling for the endless lies and

deceit of the corrupt universe we call home.

Because you never know.

Maybe Prince Charming does exist…
- Analeigh Barnes (Fall 2010 - Bucket Lines)