Cinderella Bella Poem by Bridgid Patrick

My outstretched arms surpass the point
Of normal, taxing every joint
By reaching, gasping, pulling in
The cloistered thoughts that lie within.

We meet in quiet, swathed in night,
Our bodies bathed in candlelight,
As words are whispered, sparsely spread
Between the bureau and the bed,

Where, skin-on-soul, our friction roars
While each of us, in turn, explores—
The vastness shuts—a shrink-wrapped world
Containing two, enclosed and curled

Together in contented bliss,
A rhythm set, no breath amiss
Within the syncopated shell
Of our imagined wishing well,

Which shimmers not with silver coins,
But softly gleams, as love enjoins,
With eyes awash in dancing hues,
A flashing mesh of browns and blues.

Our funneled gazes turn the lock
On earthly cares, to catch the clock—
11: 59—pre-chime,
Before it strikes our ending time—

Instead, we claim the lives we know,
The challenges, the chores, although
One day, with limitations gone,
Perhaps our dream will sidle on

Beyond the Cinderella toll,
Where, unencumbered, we could roll
Towards a truth, on steady wheels,
Of freer time, and new ideals.