And they lived happily ever...ur... oh wait...

No matter what life you lead

the virgin is a lovely number:

cheeks as fragile as cigarette paper,

arms and legs made of Limoges,

lips like Vin Du Rhône,

rolling her china-blue doll eyes

open and shut.

Open to say,

Good Day Mama,

and shut for the thrust

of the unicorn.

She is unsoiled.

She is as white as a bonefish.

from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

A friend of mine sent me a link to a photo project, called "Fallen Princesses" by Dina Goldstein because she thought I would love it and she was so right! I love the real looking scenarios, but with these very Disney-esque princesses still all dressed up.

Goldstein writes:

"These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues."

I think these images are amazing and I can't wait to see the 2 that she has yet to shoot. And because I can't help but think of Anne Sexton's retellings of classic fairy tales found in her collection, Transformations, I've posted some snippets of the poems for your reading enjoyment.

This one day her mother gave her

a basket of wine and cake

to take to her grandmother

because she was ill.

Wine and cake?

Where's the aspirin? The penicillin?

Where's the fruit juice?

Peter Rabbit got camomile tea.

But wine and cake it was.

from "Red Riding Hood"

I must not sleep
for while I'm asleep I'm ninety

and think I'm dying.

Death rattles in my throat

like a marble.

I wear tubes like earrings.

I lie as still as a bar of iron.

You can stick a needle

through my kneecap and I won't flinch.

I'm all shot up with Novocain.

This trance girl

is yours to do with.

from "Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)"

Cinderella and the prince

lived, they say, happily ever after,

like two dolls in a museum case

never bothered by diapers or dust,

never arguing over the timing of an egg,

never telling the same story twice,

never getting a middle-aged spread,

their darling smiles pasted on for eternity.

Regular Bobbsey Twins.

That story.

from "Cinderella"