2 posts tagged “grimms”

The Blue Light

 (based on a Grimms fairytale where an old wounded soldier is booted out of the kings personal

 guard and finds the house of a witch, where he makes away with a blue light.  He eventually

 becomes king and marries the daughter of the king.)

Sometimes a blue light leads you home

through the darkest owl-screeching woods

to the castle you've dreamed of

to the princess whose arms

hang paler than snow

The blue light is a bit of a star

with which you must be careful

lest it explode in interstellar gas

and take all life

the mouse in the wheat

and the king at his table

to become blue light

drifting in the ocean of space

that also is a dream from your childhood

Lucy Simpson

Seattle

5/12/2008

A Grimms fairytale about a poor  peasant, who lies his way to wealth.  He never meets with any punishment, but seems to be thought of as clever.

The Little Peasant

In one story a couple makes a baby out of wood

and are rewarded by it's suckle

but our little man fashions a cow

little do we know he loves this wood uddered creature

and is bereft when she is stolen

and put in an art house somewhere

It is really a better life for the cow

much like the golden calf

but with lattes and an endless stream of repartee

and bon mots spilling from mouths

like so many sugar cubes

There is something ugly about the little guy

even though he saves a raven

binding up its wing

and sings to it the lullabies

that only he knows

There is something ugly about the little peasant

who tricks the shepherd into the barrel

to drown in his stead

and become bailiff of the dead

There is something ugly in the man

who sends the burghers and bakers

the farmers and fishers

the candle stick makers and joint casers

to drown in the lake, with water

calm deception

the clouds do not baa but seem as if

eating the grass of the meadow below

which is greener

and makes them fatter

and their fleeces fleecier white

Nightly, though he never knows it

the raven speeds him away

from hell

with all those townsfolk

emerging from the water

to claim him as their own

yes to finally share

what they have with him

Lucy Simpson, Seattle, 4/24/2008