The Rose and The Thorns

    Once upon a time there was a beautiful garden, and in the very center of that garden was a beautiful rose bush, and at the very top of that rose bush grew the most beautiful rose ever created. Every day people and animals would come to see her and admire her beauty, but every time they tried to get close to the rose or touch her they found themselves pricked and wounded by the sharp thorns hiding beneath her petals. One day, increasingly annoyed by this, the Rose called down to the Thorns,

    “Excuse me, but do you mind? People adore me and they’d like to touch me, so if you wouldn’t mind ceasing to cut them and cause them pain, I’d be ever so grateful.” To this the Thorns replied,

    “Sorry, Lady, but we’re just doing what we’re meant to do.”

    “Well!” huffed the Rose, “Such nasty little things you are, its no wonder nobody likes you! It is just awful that we are part of the same bush!”. The Thorns laughed at this and called back,

    “Well if you don’t like being part of the bush, go ahead and jump! See how well you get along without us!”

    The Rose, who was terribly vane and terribly conceited, thought to herself, what do I need the rest of this bush for anyhow? So she plucked herself free from her stem and jumped towards the ground where she fell amongst the grass and the leaves. It was very cold on the ground, and The Rose could not feel the wind in her petals or the sun on her face. People passed by the bush and noticed the Beautiful Rose was gone,

    “What a shame...” they said, and continued on their way. The Rose tried to call up from the ground,

    “I’m down here! I’m down here! You can touch me now!” but no one heard her or noticed her. This caused the Rose such sadness that within a few days she withered and died from a broken heart.

    When news of the Roses death finally traveled from the bottom of the bush up to the top, the Thorns sighed and shook their heads,

    “It’s a sad thing. She was so beautiful.”, said one to the other. To which another Thorn replied,

    “She brought it on herself. If she could have accepted that we were a part of her,  she’d still be up here being admired today.”

The Rope and The Ladder

    Once Upon A Time there was a fair maiden who lived locked away at the top a very tall tower. She was in love with a handsome Prince, as most women locked atop tall towers are, and every day the Prince would ride to her window and call up to her,

    “O Fairest Maiden, come to your window! It is I, your Prince, bearing gifts for you!”.  At the sound of his call the fair maiden would rush to her window and look down upon his handsome face,

    “O my Prince, how long the hours seem between our visits!” she would call back. They spent every afternoon conversing about their plans to escape and at the end of every visit the Prince would hold up a long strand of twine and a great black raven would fly from the forest and snatch the string from his hand, then fly it up to the fair maiden at the top of her tower. With each length of twine the handsome Prince brought her, the fair maiden would weave another loop of rope, which, when it was long enough, she could climb down.

 

    On the afternoon of the ropes completion the Prince arrived at dusk at the base of the tower.

    “O Fairest Maiden, come to your window! It is I, your Prince, finally come to take you away!” cried the Prince, his heart bursting with joy at the very thought. The fair maiden rushed to her window and stared down at her Prince.

    “I am going to lower the rope now and climb down to you, my love!” she sighed. Then the maiden tied one end of the rope to her bedpost and dropped the heavy coils out the window. As she gazed toward the ground she suddenly became very uneasy,

    “My Prince!” she called, “It is a very long way down! What if I slip and fall?” she asked.

    “I will catch you!” he sang back to her. Still, the fair maiden was becoming increasingly unsure of her plans. She sat on the window ledge and let her feet hang in the air.

    “Where will we go?” she asked nervously.

    “What?” asked the Prince, growing more puzzled by her hesitance.

    “Where will we go?! Where will we live!?” she cried, the panic rising in her voice.       

    “We will go anywhere!” said the Prince, “We will live anywhere! We will be together and all will be right in the world!”

    “But what if that is not enough!?” shrieked the maiden, who suddenly lost her balance and tumbled off her perch. As she fell she grabbed frantically at the rope, her palms slippery with sweat, and cried out,

    “I’ll never make it! I cannot do this! What am I to do now?!”.The maiden was certain that all hope was lost.

    The Prince stood, horrified, at the base of the tower starring up at his love who now dangled perilously between the window and the ground,

    “My love-” he sighed with tears in his eyes, “it seems you only have two choices now. You can hang yourself with that rope, or use it as a ladder. Please climb down to me. Have faith that I will catch you if you fall.”. His words floated up to the ear of the frightened maiden and calmed her heart instantly. She took a deep breath and lowered herself  into the arms of her waiting Prince. When she was safe again she said,

    “I had never planned to fall..” and the handsome Prince replied,

    “i had always planned to catch you.”, and then he kissed her sweetly, placed her on his mighty steed, and they rode off into the unknown horizon, together.

The Prince & The Pearl

    Once Upon a Time there lived a very Charming Thief and a very Beautiful Liar who happened upon each other  one day while crossing the same bridge.

    “Good Day, “ said the Charming Thief. The Beautiful Liar nodded,

    “Good Day to you Sir.”

They smiled at each other as they crossed the old wooden bridge together.            “Headed to town?” asked the Thief.

    “I suppose it would appear that way” said the Liar, not wanting to give up her secrets. The Charming Thief smiled a charming smile at her.

    “Why won’t you tell me where you are going?” he asked.

    “Because, “said the Liar, “I know you are a Thief and you may follow me to my home and rob me of my possessions.”

The Thief laughed and shook his head,

    “You may fool some men but I know the truth. You just do not wish to share your secrets with me.”. This embarrassed the Beautiful Liar which caused her to blush.

    “You are very Beautiful,” said the Thief with a small smile, “but you are also a Liar.”

To this statement the Beautiful Liar replied,

    “Well you are very Charming, but you are a Thief!”

    “No one is perfect.” said the Charming Thief. “Since we are both headed to town, on the same road, I suggest we keep each other company.”

    “What if  do not like your company?” asked the Liar.

    “I think you do.” He replied. This made her smile. She did like his company.

    So The Charming Thief and The Beautiful Liar continued on together, sharing conversation, enjoying the landscapes on the way. They talked a bit about their past and a bit of their dreams for the future. They stopped to eat along the banks of a small river. He picked her a flower. She picked him an apple.

    “It is still a long walk to town, and I am tired from the mornings journey. Do you mind if I rest a while in the shade of this tree? The grass is so cool and I feel as though I may have wonderful dreams..” said the Beautiful Liar, stretching back to rest her head in her hands. The Charming Thief looked at her. She was very Beautiful and she wore a single pearl strung on a long silver chain about her neck.

    “Yes, I think a rest is due. May I lie beside you while you sleep?” he asked her. She nodded dreamily as he came to rest next to her.

    “Where were you going when we met on the bridge?” he whispered into her ear.

    “I was on my way to the castle, “said the Liar, “to meet the Prince and be his Bride. Some day I will live in the highest room of the tallest tower and look out over the entire country side. I will have fine gowns made of silk and precious treasures made of silver and sweet milk and honey for breakfast every morning and I shan’t ever be unhappy or have to do anything I dislike ever again..” she sighed. This was a lie. The truth was she was only on her way to the mill to buy grain for baking bread, but she was a Liar with a great streak of vanity, and did not want the Charming Thief to think she was common or plain.

    “Is that the truth?” he asked her.

    “Yes.” she replied and slipped into slumber.

The Charming Thief lay awake next to her and pondered what to do next. He did not know if what she had said was true. He liked the Beautiful Liar and wanted to sleep beside her and kiss her rosy cheeks when she awoke, but if she were to be married to the Prince then what would she want with him, a marked criminal, and if it were not true then she was lying to him. The thought filled him with rage and unhappiness as he did not like to be made a fool. Confused about what to believe, he did the only thing that seemed natural to a Charming Thief. While she slept, he slipped the necklace from her neck and made off into the sunset with her pearl.

    When the Beautiful Liar awoke it had grown dark and the stars in the sky had appeared. She was cold and damp from the dew on the grass, and she was alone. The Charming Thief was no where to be seen.

    “Hello?” she called into the dark. There was no reply. She wondered why he had left? It seemed as though they were enjoying each other. Even if he was a Thief, he was indeed charming, and handsome, and he had made her laugh. It was only as she stood up and dusted herself off  that she noticed her necklace was gone.

    “O, no!” she cried, “He has stolen my pearl!” and she sank to the ground weeping, “I never should have trusted him.”

   

    The sad, Beautiful Liar walked the rest of the way to town alone. When she got there she stopped at the Tavern for food and warmth. Seated at the Tavern Bar was the Charming Thief. Furiously she marched over to him,

    “You took my pearl!” she yelled.

    “You’re off to be a Princess, you’ll have plenty of pearls.” scoffed the Charming Thief.

    “No!” she said, “That was a gift to me from my mother! It is most dear to me!”

    “It is only a trinket. Your Prince will buy you all the pearls in the ocean.” he said .

    “It is no trinket and there is no Prince!” she cried, frustrated, “I was on my way to the mill when we met. I’m not to be married or a Princess! Now give me back my pearl, please!”

    “Why would you lie to me about such a silly thing?” He asked angrily.

    “Why would you steal my most valued possession?” she wept.

    “It is my nature...” said the Charming Thief.

    “As it is mine...” said the Beautiful Liar. A moment of silence passed between them.

    “I liked you before this.” he said to her.

    “I liked you before this, too.” she replied wiping her eyes, “May I have my necklace back now?” she asked.

    “No.” he said as he stood up, “I am keeping it to remind me of the Beautiful Liar I journeyed with one sunny afternoon, whom I might have loved one day.”

She watched him through tears as he walked to the door,

    “I never would have loved you!”. She lied.

    Her words cut him deeply and he flinched at the sound of them, but he did not stop or turn around to meet her eye, and, too proud to go after him, The Beautiful Liar let The Charming Thief slip away into the night . Many years later she still can’t help thinking of him every time her hand brushes the empty spot where her pearl would have hung.

Metro Snow Globe Madness

It's snowing to a fare-thee-well outside.

A New York City Blizzard. 

MetroWinterWonderLand.

Concrete Tundra of the Tri-State Area,

and we, All-Weather-Women, 

are out in our Nanook of the North finest.

I wear stripes in snow storms,
And tall rubber boots.
But I saw some women on the subway
in their patent leather heels,
and furs, and labels, still strutting their stuff
on the biggest runway of the world.
A New York City Blizzard,
and everyone was looking.

We are out there!
Lonely Soldiers of the Frozen
waiting for The Iron Horse Cavalries
and their electric shoe gallop.

We, brave and bold and glorious snow-bunny souls, 

we are out there in THIS!
A knee high drifting, corner jumping,
slush throwing, combustion driven world...

A New York City Blizzard.

Umbrellaphobia

"Hey Baby-" I said, 

"It's one of those wet winter Tuesdays in New York,

where your converse get soaked and you pass out on the subway and people vanish from Facebook 

and you don't even notice right away.."

What?

"Bundle up and stay dry," I told her, 

"I love you."

Then she asked me to weekend mad hatter tea parties

and I told her to kiss you once for me but 

not to tell you.

And I played peer editor and read her desires for a college experience that eluded most of us

but didn't rain on her parade. 

Because it's hard, on Tuesdays like these, 

to know which way you're walking or where you're going,

Or where you came from?

Something about the wet and the rain and all those

Black, bloody, umbrellas out there,
threatening eye balls across the boroughs.

You know there's no name for an irrational fear of umbrellas?

I'm settled on umbrellaphobia, but trust me, that's not it.

No, that's not it.

Then she asks me why I'm passing out on subways,

I tell her it's not me, it's you, I just talk about it.

What?

"Bundle up and stay dry," she tells me, 

"I love you."

DAISY PUSHING BUCKET KICKING

I’m not dying.

Not immediately at any rate, though we are all marching steadily towards dust and ash and air.
I’m not dying today.
But if I were dying-
And it’s important to think about this-


If this was my last day on earth…..


I’d leave all the money in my pocket to the waitress who brings me my coffee
And
I’d take off work to stay home and play with my dog in the grass
And
I’d drink martinis until I figured out how I like them
And
I’d tell you I love you.
And
I’d visit all the museums in New York
And
I’d stuff myself with junk food and candy
And
I’d wish that I’d seen more of America, and more of the world.
And
I’d dress to the nines and be glad I spent my paychecks on shoes and shiny things.
And
I’d go dancing
And
I’d tell you I love you again
And
I’d leave something behind,
Something more than an empty space.
So you could know after I was gone that I had been there.


I‘m not dying...
But perhaps with such a long to-do list,
I should live as if I were.

Dreams of My Father;

The past few nights I've been dreaming of my father.
The first night we lived in a world of trains-
a maze of tracks winding around the city.
He worked in a factory where they massed produced women who looked like me. 

I couldn't get him to pay attention to me.
He was too busy talking on his cell to even notice me.
He looked right through me.
He walked right past me.
And I ran after him, wanting to tell him something important. 
I chased after him, following the twist of the electrified third rail. 
Trying to get him to turn around. To look at me.
And finally, steps from the platform, he did turn and I was trailing in his wake,
and I yelled something-
Something important,
and he looked at me from across the distance and said nothing.
Then he turned and kept on walking 
and I woke up.


In the second dream he looked the same,
tall and dark in a woolly trench coat,
but there was no factory of women, there was no city of trains.
I kept getting text messages from him written in gibberish. 
Letters that should have made words 
but instead just scrambled themselves into nonsense.

And last night he was there again,
though most of it I've forgotten now.
Except the end.
I was sad, sitting on a curb with my feet in the gutter.
He was behind me when put his hand on my shoulder 
and asked me in a tone I've never heard him use, 
"Lulu, do you have peace in your heart?"
The tears of my dream self to my dream father when I told him, "No.."  
were so real that I woke up with the taste of salt on my lips.


Maybe he gave me advice I couldn't remember upon waking. 
Maybe the advice is there in the question. 
I wish he did care, the way he did in my dream.
I wish he would come around and tell me, 
"Lulu, you are beautiful and you should be happy and you should be loved. You deserve the world."
and I wish it didn't bother me that he won't..