Even Cinderella Gets Naked

I've always been amazed by the number of people who wander to my site, looking for my poem "Even Cinderella Gets Naked". The whole concept was to make the point that even mythic characters, if we accept them a flesh and blood, had and have dimension.

It was also written to a female acquaintance who was feeling particularly unworthy of romance, back in 1997.

Unworthy of romance? What 11 of the Ten Commandments must one break in public to achieve that distinction? Everyone is redeemable, everyone. Maybe not by the same means, but everyone deserves some joy in life, everyone deserves to be loved, everyone deserves honor, in some aspect.

here's the poem...

Even Cinderella Gets Naked

fairy tales don't end at the threshold.
and the cold isn't as cold with Prince Charming
showing you the other half of his charm.
arm yourself with passion tonight
and fight your inhibitions.
for there are no more conditions.
and, once you shower off the fireplace ash,
I'll explain to you many things a glass slipper
is good for besides leaving behind
for this Prince to find
(if you don't mind)
and I know you won't.
so scrub off the grime
and the young lady doubts.
the woman emerges
from her cocoon
(tonight) to make more fantastic memories
than in any Grimm book of antiquities.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

I once got an email from a young man complaining I didn't have an illustration with it. I told him he needed to be finding himself a young woman, instead of looking for naked cartoons on the web.

I'm doing some urban renewal in the City of Legends later this week...this should be fun. I count approximately 60 poems to fall to my wrecking ball, with about the same number replacing them. Yeeeeee-ha!