The Evidence

so many times the folk tale fairy tale penalties
seem too harsh
it would make one afraid to live

since punishment came for such small things
that in any other forest would signify nothing.
so Persephone pulled a flower up by the roots

to give her mother
and wound up in hell.
the merchant stopping by

in a snowdrifting garden
plucked a rose where there were many
not to break a promise to his daughter.

and wound up paying for it
with his daughter.
why even as a child I couldn't understand

when people shook their heads and said
reading fairytales again
to escape.?

escape what I thought
is life so easy there?
the evidence is against it.

mary angela douglas 15 january 2018