Ever After
The problem with life
is that it keeps on going after the happy ending
and going and going,
and the suffering always comes back.
The evil queen survives her fall
and returns to steal away your dreams
with black magic and poisoned apples;
the skulls and daggers
always hidden under beds,
under clothes in dresser drawers,
in the dark corners of basements and attics,
the places in your mind you never clean
so they’re shrouded in cobwebs,
tormented by mice and rats
and the vaguer things in your imagination,
dark monsters hiding in closets
with the skeletons.
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