On The Veracity of Fairy Tales

I was thinking about fairy tale lore
how often it speaks to distinguishing
the false from the true

and yet it is condemned as being
out of reality by sniffy people
looking straight through you,

you, who persist in cherishing them
the old tales,
whatever else you do,

are deemed fools.
but this is the vein of gold
running through the marble immutable

not to be bought or sold
but earned.
and the plain bird

sings more true
than the jeweled one breaking down.
look what I found

I ran to tell my mother,
my grandparents too, though they were gone
who schooled me in them

all those ardent stories
though now they are disabused
(the children), from reading them

and given sand in a tea cup
by the witches turning them
into politcal fables

disabling beauty.

yet, in the original, what else can we use
when the soul is falling, falling down
or pushed from behind.

time out of mind.
the best that can be found,
all, all I know:

the road lined in opals is leading straight home.

mary angela douglas 26 july 2019