What If? (A Glass Slipper Sonnet)

And now for something a little more light-hearted. Do you get a poem in your inbox from Everyday Poems each weekday morning? You should. It’s only 5.99 for an annual subscription, and whether you write poetry or not, it’s good for what ails you. Or what doesn’t ail you. It’s just plain good for you. And if you’re a writer, reading poetry makes you a better writer.

Anyway, today’s poem was a glass slipper sonnet by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell in honor of Tweetspeak Poetry’s February focus on Fairy Tales and Fantasy. It made me smile, and then I remembered when some of us tried our hands at sonnets a few years back. So I dug mine up and dusted it a little. Some of the lines have 11 syllables instead of 10, but oh well.

What If? (A Glass Slipper Sonnet)

What if she hadn’t slipped slipper from foot?
What if she’d hurtled headlong down the stair?
Would an ungraceful girlfriend be giv’n the boot
if she flipped or flopped or flew through the air?

What if her tootsies throbbed from the twirling
and puffy pedes blew up fragile glass
to sent shoe shards swirling in bright prism’d bling
that showered and powdered the ballroom en masse?

What if then barefoot she danced through the night
floating on diamond dust carpet and shimmer
if when clock clanged she took flight from the light
without a glass slipper–nary a glimmer?

No slipper, no fitting, no knee on the bend
so this story would have a much different end.

In the stillness,

Sandy