It’s always the blacksmith who does these things,
as if metal and magic go together.
You learn to be quiet
and hear no evil--only the ping-ping bang
of metal on metal,
and the hiss of the boil in the water.
But when pale to-be queens
with ebony eyes
commission such objects with hatred,
you can’t help but hear
the history that’s spilled
through apple red lips with a whisper.
And you know that you’ll tell,
not today, but tomorrow…
how the fairest of all in the land
ordered the clogs
to be made for a dance
that would last ‘til the wearer was
dead.
Sarah Stasik writes from a crooked mountain in Virginia, where she lives with her husband and son. Visit her blog at http://www.letters-to-the-cosmos.blogspot.com/ to read some random thoughts and find out more about her writing.
3 comments:
I love this! You've given a character who has always been off-stage, so to speak, such a compelling story!
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
In case this theme hasn’t been discovered yet in my comments, I thoroughly enjoy a good backstory about the well-known fairy tales. In the Grimm version of “Snow White”, the title princess has her evil queen of a mother dance around in hot iron shoes until she falls over dead because of it. Based on reading this tale, anyone can see the malicious intentions of Snow White towards her mother, but for anyone lacking the view, this backstory makes Snow White’s intentions extremely clear: she really wants her mother dead, but she also wants her mother to die in the most painful and slow process ever recorded. The blacksmith that has to fulfill this order seems completely put off by the queen, as he should be because of what her intentions are. Also good to note because of this story: the iron shoes are enchanted to remain molten hot until the wearer is dead. I honestly thought that the initial burning of the glowing iron shoes would be enough to dance around in and die from, but I was terribly wrong, and it makes Snow White that much more cruel.
Rachel B.
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