Soumya revisits the tale of Cinderella, in this evocative poem, for Different Truths.

Cinderella had a sparkling white dress
The entire ballroom she did impress
The prince was charmed and so were they all
Cinderella was the toast of the ball
The ugly sisters with envy were green
And didn’t want Cinderella’s charms to be seen
So they splattered ink on her dress
Creating quite a spectacular mess
Cinderella was quite overwhelmed with fright
And immediately took recourse to flight
She decided that she must hide away
And disappeared to everyone’s dismay
She blamed herself for her horrible plight
Saying that she shouldn’t have worn something so bright
She shouldn’t have dazzled the folks at the ball
So, she deserved to stay in the dark dingy hall
Hey Cinderella, it’s Okay to shine
And dazzling all people is absolutely fine
Tell all the folks that ink stains the new trend
And see who supports you, he’s the true friend
And you know what else to do with the dress?
Wipe the stains into your false sister’s face
Cinderella came back in any old mess
It’s she that’s so sparkling and not that old dress
The ink stains don’t mar her, it stains those who threw
The ink at her, those envious weak few.

Visual by Different Truths

Soumya Mukherjee

Soumya Mukherjee is an alumnus of St Stephens College and Delhi School of Economics. He earns his daily bread by working for a PSU Insurance company, and lectures for peanuts. His other passions, family, friends, films, travel, food, trekking, wildlife, music, theater, and occasionally, writing. He has been published in many national newspapers of repute. He has published his first novel, Memories, a novella, hopefully, the first of his many books. He blogs as well.

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