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Title:       Sleeping-in Beauty
Date:        2022-04-05
Link:        https://spool-five.com/poetry/2022_apr5_myth/
Word Count:  319
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Today's prompt was to write about a mythical creature/animal doing
'ordinary' things.
        
> And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to
> challenge you to write a poem about a mythical person or creature doing
> something unusual – or at least something that seems unusual in relation
> to that person/creature. For example, what does Hercules do when he
> loses a sock in the dryer? If a mermaid wants to pick up rock-climbing
> as a hobby, how does she do that? What happens when a mountain troll
> makes pancakes?
            
For this poem, I tried to imagine Sleeping Beauty as older, separated,
and as doing something unusual - sleeping. Unusual in the sense that
she was supposedly 'freed' from her sleeping curse. But, what if 'true
love' is not enough to really free us from whatever it is that makes us
not want to wake up in the mornings?
        
    She spent her fortieth birthday alone.
    It's fine. It was an opportunity
    to reflect on all the ways she'd grown.
    All the ways she was better off
    without him.

    He had left because...why had he left again?
    She slept too much, he said
    She didn't look at him as a man
    He had saved her after all
    be grateful.

    So what, if she still liked to sleep till noon?
    She preferred the nighttime wakefulness,
    The wine, the books, and the moon.
    She could be alone, far away
    from his nagging.

    Maybe she should have put more effort in
    Tried to listen, to empathize
    She knew he loved her, it had been written
    True loves kiss had
    awakened her.

    Or, perhaps he had only loved her in his way
    Perhaps that witches curse was still at work
    Maybe the right guy would arrive, any day
    And break the spell
    And wake her up.

    She still slept a lot, after all.
    Sometimes past noon.