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creative writing
A Wife of Bluebeard By Bella Hatch You tell yourself you love The prince who dashes in Who storms the castle And slays the dragon And takes away a part of you in doing so. You tell yourself you’ll learn to love Bluebeard If it means you can avoid the chopping block. You insist you like the inferno, The desire is the fire and it burns beautifully But it leaves nothing But ashes and soot And a bad taste in your mouth. (You thought he’d slayed the dragon But he’s only taken its place.) There are moments when You can convince yourself you love him; When he’s away in sleep, Lost to you somewhere you Never wanted to follow; When you squint He can look perfect (But squinting gets so tiring.)
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You rewrite the story as many times As your mind will let you; Reiteration after cold reiteration Until the lines between hero And villain Blur on the page And in your head So you’ll just ask him to kiss the burns on your fingers And run them through his hair. He won’t love you In any way you understand (Or any way that really matters) And you’ll love him More than he’ll ever ask to be (Or he’ll ever deserve) And you’ll wonder if maybe The wives before you were the lucky ones.
