A deeply moving poem from Valerie Lute about the human connection between men and women, brothers and sisters, and how we sometimes fail to live up to our obligations to one another.
Cinderella’s Brother
watched his sister fallen in the dust,
but he never spoke a word,
for real men never comfort,
they are hard and unbendable as blocks of wood.
But Cinderella’s brother was once Cinderella’s sister,
swathed in a long white gown
and head crowned in curls,
as he clung to his sister’s skirts
across the kitchen floor.
And when she took him in her arms,
not much thicker than his own,
she repeated the words sister, brother,
as if they were a prayer.
But britching came and night fell,
and the kitchen filled with smoke.
And Cinderella’s brother stood above his sister
as she struggled in the dust.
***
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Photo by Charles “The Disney Genius” Brown /Flickr