Fairytale Poems

I never much liked fairytales as a child, but nowadays I find them fascinating. Or rather, the re-telling of fairytales, the more subversive the better.
L.L. Barkat wrote a poem this week (brilliant poem - did I say brilliant? Well, I meant to) inspired by Cinderella  (see here) and challenged whosoever was willing to do the same.
This was so timely as this week I also bought myself The World's Wife: Poems by Carol Ann Duffy which opens with a magnificent poetic re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood.
So I decided to be a willing fairytale poet.
My poem is inspired by the tale of Rumpelstiltskin.

The Name Spinner

You may think I was fortunate to have a father
Who saw fit to boast in a daughter,
A miller who would have his daughter queen.
But I could not spin gold.

I wept three nights as the straw mountains multiplied,
And sighed three nights as the magic man spun
Life from gold for me. My crown was won
With a pendant, a ring and an empty promise.

I have been a bargaining chip my whole life long -
Traded by my father for a royal name,
By the king for riches magic-made,
And now my desperation played on for a babe.

But hear now that I am queen and I have means!
He spun gold from straw, but I spin names from tears.
I sobbed three nights to claim the name of my sovereign king;
The worth of his could not exceed three more.

Louise