CASH-POOR/CAN’T AFFORD YOUTH CULTURE ANYMORE
Nightmares about Soylent Green
Hungry? Worried about aging?
Thankfully, no Charlton Heston in the dream
Shopped at Walmart yesterday
Tomatoes spilled from inferior plastic tray
Some hit the floor but I’d already paid
Nothing grew in my back yard
Lost the planting will, everything’s hard
Sandy soil, anyway, is much too scarred
Food and water no longer seem healing
Garden medicine chest no longer appealing
Glancing in reflective glass, aged face has me reeling
Food, water, shelter and power
Supposed to create a protective tower
Framework for the body and soul bower
Poisoned is the water and food
Houses unaffordable yet devalued
Utilities effectuate disquietude
Ah, to be young and strong and ready to fight
To feel the blood pump while mood takes flight
But my side-effect of aging is terrible fright
Today is the future…
© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Ebay Gothic Skeleton Wall Mirror
“WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?”
What do women want
According to medieval storytellers
“Sovereynte”
The ability to make her own decisions
I disagree
Women want beauty
The magic ticket to
Receive it all
When older,
Women want youth
AKA beauty
Let me prove
This to you
Disputing Chaucer and
His Wife of Bath Tale
Or, later, Sir Thomas Malory
And although Dame Ragnelle
Is given the honor of
“Knowing” what women want
The tale would be different
If an actual woman
Wrote the story:
So, you may remember that
King Arthur is chasing
(Poaching?)
A deer in haunted Inglewood Forest
Owned by the otherworldly
Sir Gromer Somer Joure
Who in anger, demands an answer
Within one year
(Or he will behead the king)
To the question:
What do women most desire?
Despairing, Arthur confides
In his nephew Sir Gawain
So the upbeat knight
Organizes a ride
Through the country
Asking women the question
But all the answers are different
(Okay, no women-change-their-minds-too-much jokes)
Desperate, Arthur returns to the forest
And meets a “loathly” lady
An ugly, old crone
Promising the answer
If he arranges for Gawain to wed her
Gawain agrees, to save his uncle
And Arthur finds Sir Gromer
Who is waiting with his sister
Lady Ragnelle, who happens to be
The “loathly” lady
She has quietly told him the answer is
“Sovereynte”
In bed, after wed
Gawain good-naturedly decides
To treat Ragnelle like a beautiful woman
Turning around
He sees she has transformed into a young
Stunning one
“You broke the spell
Cursed, to be old and ugly
Until a handsome young knight
Agreed to marry me”
But her looks will only be restored half the day
She gives him the choice:
Shall she be beautiful at night
When they are together
Or during the day
When they are with others?
Instead, Gawain gives her the sovereynté to make the choice herself
His answer lifts the curse for good
And Ragnelle’s beauty returns permanently
Beauty
Youth
Magical words
Why are there no real stories
About ugly, old men
Marrying beautiful, young women?
Well, ok, didn’t prove anything
Just another rant by an aging woman
Who happened to take a selfie
Facing the sun…
Um, hey, no knights
In my past or present
Can you lift the spell anyway?
© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Burne-Jones, Tale of the Wife of Bath, Victorian Web
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