These posts are the first draft of my dissertation piece. I have a more polished and shortened version, which I’ll probably post in the future.
Handsome & the Hideous
I
In the land of dead whispers she lived
forgotten through magic and fear,
a horrendous creature too sad to gaze on
with an invisible household no one could hear.
Many years ago she was an independent queen
ruling her castle and subjects with pride,
but when a sorcerer fancied her crown
her rejection stung so much he cried:
‘I curse you and your household!
This castle will crumble with age,
but you, time will not touch
eternity will be your cage.
‘Those loyal to you will suffer,
unseen and unheard, stuck in-between
while you, my dear, will be transformed,
an ugly terrible body, not fit for a queen.
‘This way you’ll remain,
the outside world forgetting this place,
and the curse can only be broken
if someone says “I love you” to that face.’
II
Pain had kept her company
time did not touch it, so her
twisted and mutated body remained
constant agony. With cut and swollen
gums, and an unfamiliar snout,
a trail of bloody saliva dripped
on the floor wherever she went,
an invisible body following with a mop.
Dark, wiry hair covered her whole body,
coarse, thick and rough to touch.
Its foreign presence irritating her skin
causing endless itching, scratching, sores and scabs.
Her nails were an ugly yellow, cracked, sharp;
an unwanted weapon towards others, and herself.
Her limbs were long. Stretched like straining plastic
at breaking point, arms dangling near her ankles.
Legs were thick, sturdy, providing a
predator speed and strength. Her feet were
too large to hide in shoes, the toes as long as
fingers, making grabbing and climbing second nature.
Her ribcage and spine were moulded
against her skin, each movement straining them.
Her breasts were still noticeable amongst the hair,
the areola large and dark, the nipples always erect.
Her scalp was covered with long black hair,
once luscious, soft and envied,
now scraggly and grim.
Her eyes and ears had remained human,
but years of darkness heightened her senses.
She permitted no lights, no candles, no mirrors.
She never wandered the grounds in daylight.
Instead, haunting the inside, and growling
at the unseen, she waited for the moon to rise.
It called to her…
III
His life had been mischievous
full of questionable morals and actions,
stealing, pursuing married women, even murder,
anything to gain some satisfaction.
He’d eventually grown over-confident, careless, misjudged
and was caught while sleeping in another’s bed.
Men bound his hands with biting iron, leading him to
the forest’s edge, where his sentence was read,
‘For your numerous crimes against our village:
Murder, theft, arson and rape
you are banished in the forest to die,
a place no one has ever been able to escape.’
As they shoved him forward he stumbled,
legs weak as a howl pierced the night,
yet he forced himself to calm his mind
seeing a possible solution to his plight.
There’d been a long-time rumour
of castle ruins forgotten in its region,
if he could survive and reach them he might gain life, and freedom.
Scribbled Thoughts 