You read the future
you feel some responsibility,
feel you should keep an eye on things.
You know there’s going to be an early frost
you let people know
so they can cover their crops.
You feel there’s going to be a drought
you tell people
so they can start storing water.

So what do you do
when you know a child is going to be born,
a child who is going to take all the magic
out of the world?
Good magic, bad magic – all of it
gone.

So I find out she’s going to marry a prince –
no surprise there –
an idiot could take one look at her
and guess that.
No magic mirror needed,
no bird’s bones or tea leaves.
But after – I saw what was going to happen after –
I saw their joining.
Not that I’m nosy,
as I said, I just feel a certain responsibility.
So, I see their joining, and then
its fruits – a son.
A bratling who will grow
handsome and strong and good,
but who will, through certain actions
(I can hardly tell you what they will be, can I?
I don’t want someone trying by design
what he will do by accident)
banish magic from the world.
So what could I do –
I had to out a stop to things
while I could.
I could hardly wait and kill the baby –
what if something happened in the meantime –
to me, I mean –
I can’t see everything.
So I thought – “Do away with the mother
and the child will never be.”
I would have, too,
if it hadn’t been for those damn dwarves.
Seven midgets who think they’re saving Beauty,
Purity.
Meddlers they are,
interfering before the poison can work.
Not only that, they’re actually arranging her meeting
with the prince.
He will find her, kiss her,
and soon he will come to kill me;
and afterward they will say
it was jealousy made me do it.
I can see it,
but there’s nothing I can do.
She’s watched too closely now –
damn dwarves.
I don’t care for myself,
but soon, all too soon,
the world will become an ordinary place.

Copyright 2016 by Art Metzger. All rights belong to the author and material may not be copied without the author’s express permission.