"Toil and Trouble" by Endrit Ramku

Poetry - Grapevine, Spring 24/25

A life never lived

Is rarely revived

A phantom of hope

A well made disguise.

But if one does choose

To revive a life

They must choose three things

To sacrifice

The first thing must be

Of glamour and gold

So pretty and shiny

So striking and bold

The second must be

Of passion and talent

It must represent

A thing, so gallant

The third thing must be

So ugly and vile

That when it's picked up

It does secrete bile

Some three twisted sisters

Took upon themselves

To resurge a life

To restock the shelves

For then they thus brought

The three needed items

That universe sought

That can thus enlighten

The first thing they brought

Was a ring of ruby

They reasoned that it

Shall compel one to be

The second thing was

A basket of cane

A simple creation

Pricked fingers and strained

The third item was

A brother rat’s liver

So slimy and bloody

It forced one to quiver

The three twisted sisters

Drew up a new cauldron

And then one by one

Took up their pauldrons

A large ladle spun

And turned the pot green

The three twisted sisters

Dreamed of being queens

So sudden the wreck

So sudden the trouble

So sudden the shriek

So sudden the bubbles

A spirit then rose

Out of the pot

It peered at the sisters

And rested its fraught

These three twisted sisters

Could not have awaited

This undescribed fate

A thing they created

They failed to remember

The tenet of trope

That a lost life revived

Is a phantom of hope

It is not a path

Nor a journey alive

It is simply just trouble

That toils and thrives

So foul and fair

Through toil and troubles

Do the three twisted sisters

Discover their nubbles

They have learned once more

That life is not simple

It cannot be tricked

Nor covered by wimple