Back from the kingdom ...

“Don't wait for fairy tale

       Girls,” a friend said from the pond,

                                “They only dip their toes in,

                                  Like dishes: cleaned, then gone.”

                                               I said, “But there's that story.”

                                                      He grinned, “I know the one:

                                                          The bull she kissed, who left

                                                           From here a mirror of the sun,

                                                             Covered crown to foot in fur

                                                        And gold, standing upright-tall

                                                         with hands as big as we – and

                                                     skin like cream: no warts at all.

                                                 But they never told us this

                                          (it didn't make the log):

               That princess stopped kissing her prince;

        He turned back to a frog.”