FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE...

My little daughter
wants to be Cinderella

& go to the ball
with Mummy & Daddy

& so we banish the babysitter
(so wickedly pretty)

(who still gets paid just to be banished)

We dress our darling daughter
as if she were a fairy story come true

a spangled tutu...wand... and ballet shoes.

I sweep up my little pumpkin
and carry her like a male fairy godmother

to the ball of balloons and cocktail laughter
and dance with my little streamer-strewn princess.

But even a princess can tire of excess
and she ends up asleep

under my top hat... opera scarf... and coat.

Later I carry my sweetness through street after street
careful not to wake or spill her dreams

... remembering to steal her left hand shoe
...waking her just as midnight bongs

so that she knew...

But now she sleeps
(and sleeps believing)
that fairy tales can come true and that

...they can happen to you

with a Daddy who tweaks reality

... just that little bit

...just for you.