FORGET THE FAIRYTALES

  Leafes believe the fairytales of the wind
  And blows away
  Remember to forget the fairytales

  Waves believe the fairytales of the land
  And loose the sea
  Remember to forget the fairytales

Fairies believe the fairytales of the moon
And loose their winds
Remember to forget the fairytales

Desert believe the fairytales of the
shadow and become illusion
Remember to forget the fairytales
    Sky believe the fairytales of the earth
    And loose the sun
    Remember to forget the fairytales

   Books believe the fairytales of the truth
   And loose their language
   Remember to forget the fairytales

   Childrens believe the fairytales of the
   adults and loose their childhood
   Remember to forget the fairytales.

             CHRISTOS HARATSARIS
                            POET
                    ATHENS-GREECE

In fairytales spun with threads of gold,
Fantasy weaves tales, but truth untold,
Dreams painted in hues of perfection,
Reality's absence, a cruel deception.

Characters clad in virtues so divine,
Yet life's complexities, they undermine,
For in the real world, shadows persist,
Fairytales evade truths that exist.

In castles tall, love's kiss breaks the spell,
But reality's truths, a harder sell,
In flawed hearts, love's journey is strife,
Fairytales deny the tumultuous life.

Happily ever after, a whimsical notion,
Life's challenges scorn such devotion,
For happiness waltzes with sorrow's song,
Fairytales mask the struggles lifelong.

So, I loathe the tales with happy endings,
Reality's narrative, it keeps transcending,
In life's tapestry, flaws are an art,
Fairytales, a facade, keeping us apart.

Most believe happy endings are fairytales
Some have had theirs granted
& that's the reason...
We read too many fairytales
sit & wait for one to come to us
Instead to forbid yourself from writing about one
& make one

Poisonous fairytales
Princesses sleeping
True loves first kiss
Secrets not worth keeping
All lies
Mere madness
Cruel truths
Surrounding sadness
Give your heart
Get tears in return
Give love a match
It'll watch you burn
Poisoned by fairytales
Raised on lies
No happily ever afters
It all ends with goodbye
The princesses in towers
Will never be free
And frogs stay frogs
Just kiss one, you'll see
There are no knights
Shining in white
Wishes on falling stars
Don't make things right
Sleeping Beauty and Snow White
Were never kissed and awoke
Prince Charming was a liar
He wasn't rich, he was broke
Poisonous fairytales
Cruel lies
Don't drink the cool-ade
It all ends with goodbye

I don't believe in fairytales
it's really not my thing,
I've never told my children tales
of dragons and of kings.

We’ve watched some shows
on the T.V
of Rubbles and the Stones,
we watched them drive around their cars
of ***** rocks and bones.

I’ve read them poems
of ancient deeds,
they rode a trojan horse.
Those bards of old
could tell a tale,
words of truth of course.

We’ve sung our songs
of buses wheels,
and Irish unicorns,
but now we hear
the beating drum
marching until morn.

I don’t believe in fairytales,
it’s really not my thing,
I will not teach them, I’m too prim
they really are quite Grimm.

Almost everything in the fairytales turned out to be true:
Horrible witches, nasty curses, dark demons, and guarded fortresses.
But princesses?
I thought they were figments of our imaginations.
And yet little girls read storybooks religiously, dreaming of winning over the Prince Charming.
Well ladies, you can keep your pristine and spotless princes.
I know where love and honour truly lies.

It is in the dragon's keep,
Where she is locked away and hidden.
The walls of her own heart blocking everyone out,
Burning everyone down who dared face her inner dragon.

But there is determination running through his veins,
Bravery in every bead of sweat,
A fighter's honour gleaming in his eyes.
Breaking down the barriers to find a damsel in distress, he did the strongest thing:
Held the wretch in his arms.
A soldier with the ability to find perfection in the weakest of souls.

My knight in ***** turnout gear,
The firefighter who discovered a princess.
My love who proved the reality of fairytales,
And found our happily ever after.

Fractured Fairytales, Part Two,
A sordid little tale for you.......
Stranger Danger!
Stranger Danger!
Lil' Red Riding Hood,
Alone in the woods,
Stranger Danger!
Stranger Danger!
Who is this stranger?
It's the Park Ranger!
Is he up to no good?
Prowling around in the woods?
Stranger Danger!
Stranger Danger!
Lil' Red Riding Hood,
Alone in the woods,
He's thrown away her phone,
Now Lil' Hood is not alone,
Now he's up to good,
Bad news for Lil' Red  Riding Hood,
Stranger Danger!
Stranger Danger!
Bad Park Ranger!
Stranger Danger!
He's turned her into a ****,
Now he's got her up the duff,
Stranger Danger!
Bad Park Ranger!
Now she's a single mother,
Should have had a better mother,
Letting her walk alone in the woods,
Bad handsome Park Ranger,
Stranger Danger!
Stranger Danger!
A sordid little verse for you,
That was Fractured Fairytales, Part Two.

If it was for me.
It could be meant to be.
There's a chance for you and me.

Asking her for a dance,
Is like counting the stars by hand.
Asking her for her hand,
Is a one-in-a-million chance.

If fairytales did exist, won't you stay and reminisce.
Counting days that we'll miss.

Who is seeking fairytales
Of summer skies and garden snails
With oyster shells,
And holding hands.
Fair ladies with long golden tresses.
Wearing loud azure satin dresses.
With princes and gnomes with big fancy homes.
Wicked witches and Walter Mitty.
Yells his lies.
Then we sit and wonder why.
We ever sought fairytales at all.
Still waiting for true love to call.
Off we go
Another ball.
A ball and chain with business brains.
Never no more, never again.
(c)Livvi

Fairytales are stories that never finished. That was the last thing I said to you as I walked away. Our story had an ending. An ending like a car crash. Like knowing the train is coming but it felt more comforting to stay parked on those tracks. Sifting my fingers threw your hair as you looked up at the stars and I just couldn't seem to look away from you.
I smiled as you slept and we laid under the stars that night. You would soon tell me that the weekend you went out with your friends you made a huge mistake. I imagined burning buildings and sirens. You told me another man had explored your body. I imagined you inside of the burning building.
I remember the hours after like smoke filling my lungs. You pleaded your love for me and the amount of sorries said were like cutting through glass. You had told me "you're my fairytale ending!" As I walked away and imagined that burning building getting ready to collapse, I tell you, fairytales are stories that never finished.

We are heating up
A-glow--- A-star--- A-blaze
Many other well-lit planets
She's luminous like no other
Simply crazed__Fairytales

*She's Peach-Fruitti-Tutti
Godiva loves nuts
All the melt in's
*Mr. Bacio-Hazelnut*
Mr. Pistacchio he got his nose______
Inside their sweets____Pinnochio
She's the Light-up Icecream Cone  

Moods are like ice cubes
hot and cold websites
I prefer cold zone
Feeling like
Eskimo in Alaska

Miss Prima Donna
Oh! Donna is her name
Gelatos are not all the same
We are not here to have
special privileges

Robin lost some ruffles
Polar bears ice Igloo
College boys with their sports mug
Polo shirts Santa hoo duffle bags
We don't know what she knows
or what he likes the stars
of the Cosmo we are not
here to win someone's love
OH! Yes Lotto

We are not professors or wizards
Harry Potters, they have some
Pots not a fan of pans got
some ****
**** so cool menthol smoke indeed
Around the Gelato in eighty days
The Race of a drive
computer clicks one-day creation flag
Hens and chicks laid the golden egg

Mr. Egghead meeting Conehead

His tasters choice  
 She loves Mr. Maxwell Mansion
This is Italy the Art sculptures
Sweet Gelato lips say a
thousand words of pleasure
We travel with Exotic lovebirds
Saving the Ice blue diamond
Icecream wreck what a she
gains more than a pound
Mama Mia,
not the Chia job plant
 Over the rainbow
chill out pants
Having Gelato clean
as mint float

To the waffle cone top
of the mountain sugar coat
Niagara Falls here
"Gelato calls"

What spaghetti my name is
Carretti
Mr. Alfredo his physique and
passion for food
Feeling like the comics
Having fun marveling
Carvel walking through
the love tunnel
  
Hot ladies how do they ever
Decide iced up inside

Hothead Alfredo throws
the dough
She coughs he laughs
The pizza everyone's
the head is turning beet red
Something is burning exorcist,
Lady in red pizza list

Back in Brooklyn best
Pizza and Italy (Rome) Venice (Florence)
But Bensonhurst Saturday night fever
With Nightingale Mr. Chippendale
He's chatting away on his cell phone

With her Gelato looking at the
stars of the men spiritual experience
The Cosmos feeling meltdown presence
St Thomas sunny like yellow
gelato melting

Being a saint please don't faint
A food critic dessert
*** a hex playful flirt
T Rex mighty green lime
The love fallout of coconut
He's the hottest man
on earth Pluto
Being whole flavor or 1/2 pint
of Vanilla Sky scholar or
Intermission Icecream internship
The Canadian cup another trip

  Nike air what an ice cream pair
Going back to New York City
Rockettes icecream kick
He's on his time feeling the royalty
Lets bow to the dogs best friend
French barrette in her ice blue
Corvette, she is 'Ice Queen"
Super Ice me, Hero

Do what the Romans do
Lend me your warm soul of hands
Getting married Italian medieval rings
For my next Gelato adventure
escape be polite on Google
Mr. Alfredo loves all kinds of noodle
The shape of Cone's to come in her head

Not an Antman, please or fly by night
Icecream Cone Head Batman
*But I am a woman named Robin
Christopher Robin, Robin Hood
Why are boys and girls name alike
**** good humor lady
Good humor truck
Where is her order head chef
shrimp scampi
In the islands of Sorrento

What a time for ironing
What a waffle shirt eating
his waffle
Icecream with ladybugs and dirt
So many varieties mental thing
Everything icecream you scream
What a college Varsity every year  
"Hot lady Gelato's" head of the dean
list oh! No
[Mr. Alfredo} ice cream chair with
another Gelato pair
Chiao for now

Lying my bed thinking of you
In every hours
It feels like I'm stupid
Overthinking that could be happen
Just in fairytales

Having a Red ripe tomato in my cheeks
When I saw you looking at me
It's been a years I can't tell you
Because I'm afraid

I keep denying
When your friends asking
And they've saying that you love that girl
My eyes start watering
Hold it saying great

Be the prince of my heart
I'll be the princess of yours
We will have a happy ever after
Just in fairytales

I’ve been reading too many fairytales
Where the princess always finds her prince
And happily ever after.

But in reality
There are no princes swooping princesses off their horses
And happily ever after is just a late night wish.

Instead the princess chases after the prince
Only to find a masked man
To reveal a villain.

Instead there’s little hope for a good day
Where a genuine smile warms my face
Never less a happily ever after.

I’ve been reading too many fairytales
That do not exist
Anymore.

by Arcassin Burnham




In this place with you tonight,
i could only walk in denim jeans,
holding your waste while we dance tonight,
i dont want to make you flea the scene,
And i'm looking hella cool,
and your looking so gorgeous,
no telling what we'll do,
Cause the night is flawless,
teenage love dont last forever,
And true love is in fairytales,
why can't you be the one and do better,
nobody cant stop our ship that sails,

too many pretty girls in dresses,
its hard not to stare at them,
she said boy i hoped you learned your lesson,
and i said girl the night won't end with them,
And i'm looking hella cool,
and your looking so beautiful,
no telling what we'll do,
Cause the night is so wonderful,
and teenage love dont last forever,
And true love is in fairytales,
why can't you be the one and do better,
nobody cant stop our ship that sails.

december 2011:
soulmates? something out of a fairytale!
handsome Prince Charming and the sweet Princess
are unlikely childhood sweethearts
their scripted fate tucked away under my bed.
april 2012:
soulmates? it’s just like in the fairytales.
we flirted with chance but knelt on destiny
my eyes were bright and wide as
true love’s first kiss hangs promised in the air.
april 2013:
soulmates? the fairytale wasn’t mine.
I tried to fill in the gaps with ice cream and picnics
but we were a jigsaw puzzle missing half its pieces.
don’t worry, I thought, I am still so very young.
july 2013:
soulmates? the fairytale forgotten
I threw myself at people hardly worth the toss
mistakenly discarding pieces of myself
I didn’t expect to need later
november 2013:
soulmates? a fairytale of treachery.
you sleeping beauty, wide awake
I tore myself to shreds on your wall of thorns
tread carefully, for fate is a dangerous game.
january 2014:
soulmates? a fairytale, for now
I cast that suffocating doctrine out of my mind
frozen in time, I decided now was what mattered
a love like one I’d never felt before beckoned
may 2014:
soulmates? a fairytale assured
I don’t know what the future holds, or how my story will unfold.
happiness is everything and care is not for this world.
love is abounding and soulmates can wait.
october 2014:
soulmates? they belong in fairytales.
chipped and damaged hearts don’t become more whole
just by finding comfort in another broken soul.
all the world’s a playground
these grown-up children
just playing pretend
because nothing’s really meant to be
after all.

I gave up a little today
It shows when I smile:
Half broken, trying too hard
Trying to learn not to love
Holding onto the idea that someday I will get to love
Again
Giving up on my dreams of a perfect house,
A beautiful dress
I'm trying not to imagine spinning around a ballroom with someone, because
Everytime I wake up from those daydreams, my heart gets broken
I've given up on beauty:
I cut my hair and called it "powerful,"
But really,
I'm just trying to be a kid again
I've finally given in to fairytales and knights in shining armour,
But I've given up on finding my own

1995 saw the start of Generation Z,
the ‘iKids’ with a knack for this new-fangled technology,
Millennial 2.0,
caught in the limbo of the World Wide Web development and Rose Gold iPhones.
They say we’re adaptable,
but apparently we can’t make our own decisions about anything.
They say that we don’t care about anything
except for our tiny little screens,
but they forget who put them in our hands,
and they forget who they run to for help
when they forget how to troubleshoot.
They forget what kind of technology we need to keep sustaining life in the Information Age,
Caught in a crossfire because
Yeah, we’re 90s kids—but the 90s never really actually ended until 2006,
the only difference between two decades being
how much neon versus how much chrome,
and just how expensive accidentally opening the internet app on your mom’s blackberry phone was.
We’re nostalgic for all the things we can’t quite remember,
and half these high schoolers weren’t actually born until 2000 or 2001.
Most of us aren’t old enough to even remember 9/11, nothing outside of the news clips that our teachers show us in history class every single September.
I was born in the same year as the Columbine shootings.
The United States has not been at peace for a year of my life.
We are always fighting— fighting for everything.
Human equality,
posing arguments about micro aggressions and refugees, seeing the inhumanity in the past that we’re living.

None of us are older than 21,
under such hard scrutiny while Baby Boomers Wave 2 still run our country.
We inherited the Millenial’s exhaustion,
the generation before us spending our childhood fighting for all the things that we have never really believed in.
Fairytales.

Generation Z.
The ‘iKids’ who are going to one day be making leaps and bounds with technology,
the generation to nurse this dying planet back to health,
Millennials 2.0 who know how to learn from our forerunners’ mistakes,
who know how to adapt from Sidekicks to iPhone 6S Plus in less than a decade.
We’re the kids who have realized that fun is found in safe spaces rather than invading each other’s personal spaces.

They say we’re too sensitive,
but at the same time they claim that we’re desensitized.
And I thought we were the generation that couldn't make decisions.

Cinderella had her slipper, which was made of glass.
Something so small, yet, so delicate.

And I, much like Cinderella, have something made of glass.
Something so small, yet, oh so delicate.

It’s my heart.

And I think the clock just struck Midnight.
But only one of us can get our happily-ever-after.

And here’s a spoiler:

*It’s the broad with the wacky footwear.

the night they wed,
cinderella slits the prince’s throat.
she won’t trade her prison
for a pretty cage.

the beast conquers nations,
but beauty’s the one telling him how.

aurora wakes herself.
she’ll spend centuries guarding
a city that never stirs,
and she never questions
her duty to people long gone.

rapunzel burns the tower.
ariel rules the sea.

She locked herself up in her room during the summer
until her skin turned pale white.

She dyed her hair red and let her Mom braid it
until her hair became long and mermaid-like.

She was a young girl who had always
believed in fairytales—
the only thing that gave out what "the meaning of life" could be.

She says she's going to find Prince Charming and
 he’s going to be everything she wants him to be.

She turned every page day to day waiting
for someone to save her from all the woes
the world has cast down upon her.

She waited until she was struck by reality with
demons in her mind and never being loved became her fear.

Letter to Cinderella (and her Texas Fairytales)

~for EJ Love~


now lookee here, girl,
slow down pardner,
blanket love-spells need to be addressed,
especially if a return requested back to
the great state of big ole Texas

as I am loved in Texas, I’m well aware
how hard it is to find love in wide open spaces,
more trucks and cows than people,
which is NYC in reverse,
both hard places in different ways
to make angelic fairies appear,
released intact from busted soap bubbles

so here’s my idée fixe,
to the reading, less,
to the writing, more,
command thyself to march towards
the seventeenths poem, and many more
to arrive at the promised
hallelujah

take the formless visions, potions,
drifting in you, figure them into words,
shaped with passion and cunning, twitching in
a creme of teasing, a dollop of wanting,
a whimsy, sense of humor, stir with another’s pinky finger,
bigger than the ineffable lone star of lonely,
an eye tear for flavor, a salty secreted ingredient,
that needs, requires another’s hand to wipe away

and a flashing neon sign:
Texas Red Amber,  Chops, and
real good loving desired!

only good loving people,
steady on their feet,
need apply, poets favored,
but a certain kind of cowboy,
ok as well

what be my expertises in matters these,
why I am your chastened, mean no more,
sweet sister who see your spells flying by,
who writes to you with newly learned humility

I really did believe back then that fairy's took my teeth
I'd carefully lift my pillow and slip them underneath.

I really did believe back then that sleighs and deers could fly
And once a year on Christmas eve old Santa crossed the sky.

And then my favourite fairytale began one August night
A true life Prince or so you seemed came after his Snow White.

My life was in a state of shock
But with your kiss I woke
I soon believed your words of love and every word you spoke.

But cheating minds can lurk beneath a pair of loving eyes.
If only I had learnt back then
That fairytales were lies.

You don't believe in fairytales
you don't believe in magic
and maybe that's the reason why
you think everything is tragic.
But if you lifted up your chin
and you looked up to the sky
you'd remember all the beauty
it's just hidden in disguise.
There is beauty in the light
there is beauty in the dark
there's still so much beauty in you
it just needs to be resparked.
So maybe if you started to believe
In things like Peter Pan and Wendy
maybe you'd begin to see
that life's still filled with magic and happy endings.

You call me your Cinderella because of my past
Well you should know that fairy tales don't last
I thought you were my prince but little did I know
That you were just putting on a show
You called me your angel because of my "beautiful" face
But now I realize that I  was just your charity case
Well don't worry about your little princess
I'm no longer the damsel in distress
And now I  know the word love was created for a fairytale that don't live in.

All I wanted was a fairytale
A handsome prince
And a white horse
I looked for magic
In people and places
Who knew nothing of the sort
I dreamed about roses
And dancing in the moonlight
Forever hoping that one day
I would be swept off my feet

Maybe fairytales exist
You proved that magic exists
But you also showed me
The thorns in the rose
I've been waiting in this tower long enough

I’ve been ruined, by the ones who tell me everyday not to be ruined
How do they expect me to cope?
They ruin themselves, ruin each other.

They tell me that it’s not always that way,
Okay, then what is it?
It wouldn’t have turned out this way if it wasn’t.

I tell myself, maybe there is hope
But no
How can there be?
Love isn’t real
Fairytales aren’t real
And that’s what love is
Just a fairytale

One day I’ll live the dream
But as soon as I wake up it’ll be the same
Just an ordinary day

Nothing spectacular
Nothing new
Just my life the way it always is

Nothing changes, but if it does
It’s not going to last
Watch that fairytale go.

in storybook endings ,
the princesses
found their princes.
The valiant heroes
chases away all the dragons.
The lost would find
their way home.
And people would find
what they've lost.
But then, whatever happened
to those who fell in love
with the dragons instead?
The damsels,
who became too comfortable
with their own distress?

That relatable gay dream of running away,
Wind blowing through what's left of your hair,
the first ties to be cut.

That relatable gay fear, questions you'd rather not asked and that subsequent relatable gay sorrow after the answers.

That relatable gay loneliness, all hollow spaces and devoted secrecy.
Bitten back tongues and hidden colors.

That relatable gay moment of finding love in your friends.
Not the kind that you kiss but the kind you hold dear in the night,
as tears drip from cheeks to shoulders.

That relatable gay plan of holidays with your other gay friends, a real family, the one who would love you no matter what.
Cheers and queers and all too far away.

That relatable gay longing for love-
true love-
Like the kind they never show in fairytales,
Real and supportive, never hidden away or forgotten.

That relatable gay anger,
Boiling from injustice always under the surface,
Waiting to erupt in pointless shouts of grief for a world that was not built for me.

That relatable gay exhaustion, hostile slurs and benignant apathy blending together into a reality of unending fights just to keep on existing.

So when someone asks me what makes you a community I show them all those relatable gay moments of anguish and loss, of solemn support and stolen minutes.

And I tell them of how terrible it is that they are so very relatable,
But how wonderful it is that we could at least live through them together.

'So It Begins...'

once upon a time
there was a girl
who always ran around in circles
figuratively, of course
not literally, because if she was literally always running in circles, she'd pretty soon be dead
but that's neither here nor there. back to the girl
she had no idea that she did this
but everyone around and about
was painfully aware of her issues
she was convinced that she was always coming up with new and exciting ideas
when really she just spent all her time recycling her own idiocy
and she became increasingly irate as all the things that she kept around
even though she would never admit that she intentionally kept them around
started to seem wrong
or used
or just completely foreign
until a magic prince
with a magic want
who totally dug the fact that this chick was entirely self obsessed and weird
and pretty much certifiable
snuck in the middle of the night
and robbed the ***** blind
however
because the guy took all her worthless
pointless
and in the end
meaningless baggage away with him
she replaced her former obsessions with stalking him
and he became her magic want
which he severely regretted soon enough
because with her circular habits
her stalking efforts were not unlike being relentlessly pursued
by a small
angry
but not entirely unaffectionate
chihuahua
he fully intended for her to stalk him from the beginning
but unfortunately
as he had been raised in a pseudo-feministic
yet highly romanticized society
he was under the false impression that once this chick started pursuing him
she would give in to her basest wants
and deep seated but repressed desires
that every girl has but doesn't admit
to ending up with a magic prince
he was wrong
there
was
no
fairytale
and once she caught up with him
the relationship that ensued
became a vicious cycle of marriage, divorce, and remarriage
because he had been ****** in
to her circularity.
the end

Swim in the deepest part of the ocean,
With waves over head,
A life pieced by water,
A nautical life,
Or aquatic wonders,
There is no fear,
Living in fairytales,
Mithical creatures,
Sorrounding the waters,
Travel sea to sea,
Hopes disguised as flounders,
Surfers all above,
And here come the divers,
Ready to explore,
The kind I belong to,
Sing to them now,
They'll jump off from sails,
To follow the voice,
Deep in the waters,
Desperate souls,
Following as I speak,
Gullible minds,
When told to go under,
This siren awaits,
For sailors to wonder,
To bring them in deep,
In dangerous waters.

-Kathia Mariana Landeros