The frog’s princess
I’ll start my story with the sad prologue
of my ball sinking in the palace lake
and being rescued by a talking frog.
I thought I was dreaming, though I was awake,
when he offered to retrieve my precious ball:
a speedy dive is all that it would take,
he said, sitting on the edge of the well wall.
I know my promise to kiss him was unwise
but I never thought he’d claim his prize at all.
You may think planting a kiss between his golden eyes
would turn out to be contentment’s epilogue
when I had to marry him despite my yawns and sighs;
but some croaks are sweeter than stale monologue:
I actually preferred my husband when he was a frog.
Alwyn Marriage’s twelve books include poetry, fiction and non-fiction, – most recently The Elder Race (a novel) and Pandora’s pandemic (poetry). Formerly university philosophy lecturer and CEO of two international literacy and literature NGOs, she’s currently Managing Editor of Oversteps Books. www.marriages.me.uk/alwyn