POEM STARTER
Write a poem based on a classic children's story.
You don't have to recount the story, but try to draw ideas or themes from it. It doesn't have to be based on a fairytale; it could be a Disney story, a myth, or even a traditional family tale.
The Little Mermaid
I grew up inside magazines,
Skinny little skeletons
Dance inside my head,
Brilliant golden silks ensnaring bodies so unfed.
They were beautiful angelfish,
Slicing through green water with
Angular rib cages. And there was me,
A bloated mess of fat. A whale sort of fish.
I sold my ugly tail, blubber for
Beauty. A shiny pair of thin
Little legs. A slender figure
Garmenting a menagerie of scales and fins.
I sold my voice to the devil,
Delicate glass dolls have no throats
To speak. I was a silent sculpture,
Fed venomous words I recited by rote.
Now I look back at my childish tail,
A chubby little thing that could be
Happy with food in her stomach.
A beautiful whale of a girl is somewhere,
lost at sea.
