Disomi Okie
Fairytale Endings
Fairytale endings never have beautiful beginnings.
I’m a Y2K baby, raised on old Disney reruns
and the original princess movies of my childhood.
In love with the glow of glass slippers in Cinderella,
Tiana’s Bayou restaurant dreams in Princess and the Frog,
Belle’s endless library.
I loved those movies
Cinderella’s kindness,
Tiana’s hustle,
Belle’s intelligence and gentle stubbornness
but something in their beginnings always bothered me.
Their struggle was too pretty, too choreographed,
as if a soundtrack was needed to validate hardship,
to make it real.
Now, like many other overgrown kids
who believed in magic without questioning its legitimacy,
I wonder if this new doubt makes me a fake fairytale connoisseur.
Maybe we were too enchanted to notice
that happily ever afters are formed from stories
that rarely start soft.
Maybe we mistook survival and ambition
for sparkle and excitement.
Or
Maybe we’re still waiting for our own beginnings,
to feel worthy of a good ending.