She does not wish for a prince;
She wishes to go to the ball. She longs
For the dress,
For the dance,
For the dalliance.

With a wave of a wand,
Ember-singed apron and ash-dusted rags
Transform:
Stitches sewn with silver thread,
Fine as a spider’s gossamer labyrinth;
Silk roses shimmer in
Sunset shades of pink and gold.
Beaded with a thousand pearls, each
A minuscule moon.

A single kiss in the garden as
Music drifts from the ballroom, 
Scent of roses at twilight.
Champagne and stars.

As the clock strikes twelve, 
She leaves the slipper, 
Not lure, but souvenir.

[Deborah Sage is a native of Kentucky, USA. She has been published in Eternal Haunted Summer, Literary LEO, Fairy Tale Magazine, the 2022 Dwarf Stars Anthology, Amethyst Press All Shall Be Well anthology for Julian of Norwich, Eye to the Telescope and Lothlorien Poetry Journal, among others.She was nominated for Best of the Net and was the poetry judge for the 2025 Fairy Tale Magazine Prose and Poetry contest.]