Beauty On The Lam, By Candace L. Barr

A lost child tramps through the woods

Delivered from death by her executioner

Perhaps into the waiting jaws of a beast

And a more gruesome end.

No mother to care, and what of her father

And his supreme power over the land?

Seven harborers cannot save

A young fugitive from herself;

Childish innocence and pretty trinkets

Outweigh safety and self-preservation.

Twice she trusts in the beauty of objects.

Twice her diminutive saviors

Bring her back from Paradise

Third time's the curse!

Dirt cannot cover vanquished beauty,

And all must see her to mourn

Until morbid fascination moves her

From one resting place to another

And accidentally dislodges the fatal fruit.

The young nomad is restored

To her former place in a new society,

And vain curiosity punishes a failed murderess

With deadly footwork.

Candace is a graduate of the Howard University Spanish program who enjoys mythology and other forms of didactic storytelling.  When she isn't reading and writing, she is playing with yarn and fiber.