Sisters, gather and listen – 

After the men took
Our spinning wheels from
Our hearths and 
Burned them in the
Square while toasting the
Health of the baby 
Princess in the castle,

After we took stock of
Our empty room and
Tried to imagine
What we could do to
Pay for bread and wine and
How we would cloth ourselves
And our elderly mother.
We made a choice, one that you can make too – 

Not everyone has a
Pack of fairies to
Bless them into
Beauty and brains and
A century to outsleep
Any trouble that might slouch
Through their front gate,

Not everyone has
Ships of solid wood and
Sailors willing to haggle
For foreign cloth and
Dresses made in lands
No one here has seen in 
Hundreds of years.

What do we have, then, but our skills?

So we will sweep our hearth,
Board up our windows,
Pack our warmest coats,
Lock the door behind us, and
Walk and hope and 
Carry the drop spindles we 
Hid in our pockets.

So we will reach out our hands – 
Take yours, if you’ll let us – and
Walk until we come to a land
That doesn’t see fire as
A solution, a salvation,
That doesn’t see us as
Expendable.

[Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman are award-winning folklorists, teachers, and writers. Together, they founded The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, teaching creative souls how to re-enchant their lives through folklore and fairy tales. Their fiction and poetry can be found in Enchanted Living, Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, Liminality, Star*Line, and others.]