Fraying Edges

	Maiden tied to wooden post, rough gold cord crossing
	over breasts and around waist, securing wrists behind her.
	She struggles, blonde hair whipping in the wind;
	white bodice tears, exposing a creamy curve of breast.

	She pulls wildly, and a cord suddenly snaps.

	The hoofbeats of a mounted prince clatter down the road.

Quickly tucking broken cord back	She untangles her hands
around her waist, she promises		from the strangling cord,
herself that she can always change	ignoring her bleeding wrists;
her mind, not realizing that with	she hides in nearby bushes.
that action she is locked into
the old pattern.			The prince arrives to an
					abandoned post.  Puzzlement
Prince rides up, glances at terrified	crosses a handsome face.
maiden, bound.  He raises lance in 	Slowly he heads toward
salute.  He lowers helm and charges	the dragon's cave, forgetting
dragon, and eventually wins		to lower his helm.  The dragon
 -- brilliantly.			incinerates him.

All is as it should be.			More blood on her hands.

Yet as she's carried off, the maiden	She backs away from the scene
wonders...what exactly has she		(one not written in any fairy tale),
chosen in "happily ever after"?		As she heads toward the road,
Clinging to her knight's mailed neck,	she confronts the vista of choices
she is assailed by doubt.		lying before her.

	She gathers together the ragged edges 
	of panic with the courage of a
	princess, determined to carry on.

	Too late to change now, the damage
	is done, and a piercing ache of regret
	for what she has lost finds
	lodging in her heart.

There it stays, through once upon a 	She goes on to see what awaits,
time...and forever after		a woman alone, in a torn white dress.

*****

M.A. Mohanraj
February 21, 1992 (edited 7/01)