The Froggie Lays Plans The Day Before Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[after the fairytale where the Princess drops the golden ball down the well and is tricked by a retrieving frog.

and to the memory of Robin Williams as the Froggie in Shelley Duvall's version ('The Tale of the Frog Prince') in her lovely Showtime series (1982-1987, Faerie Tale Theatre) .This is my version in tribute to hers! Terri Garr as the pouting Princess was impeccable. (say that twenty times fast) and you'll go far in life, too.]

you don't have to flounce out of the room
her mother said everytime you drop your
favorite toy down the well and no

we're not going to order you another one
this time. this was the day before the
tete a tete with the froggie.

so Princess Sulks in her cherry satin
sits down tres velvetly with a thump
and wonders why every moment in life

wasn't sugar lumps when

no one was bringing the whole rose garden to her
with ribbons wreathed round it ahhing and ooing.

a something stirred near the potted rose tree
but who hear, with that all that stewing.
it was our froggie flicking up a plan and

having it well in hand (or flipper) now,
in coming to understand
that he could grow more Fortunate

through courting the Importunate-
so he jounced down the palace steps
to practice, practice, practice

looking lackadaisical, if not charming;
anything but alarming and
waiting for Wednesday.

while the Princess waited,
cognizant of no scheme,
for strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries

soaked in cream o cream...

mary angela douglas 9 january 2016