Storytime

She asked me “Mum, when I grow up,

Will you still love me just as much?”

I didn’t have the heart to lie,

so I told the story of how she died

with the words “Once upon a time”

while she looked up with wond’ring eyes.

“There was a girl, who made of glass,

fell in love with another lass.

She loved the way girls tend to do

and shattered as falling things tend to do.

Along came a man filled with lust

tried to fix her, feeling he must,

with spurts of lies and splats of blame,

with thrusts of hurt and strikes of shame

‘til she tried to stop the abuse.

He left for another girl to misuse.

Never to trust another man,

she lived on without you in plan.”