Sleeping beauty

Beauty lies deathly pale in her sleep,
Forgotten by apple trees & lovers on the hill
Winter keeps a close guard over her tiny frame,
Her skin so white, with hair of darkest night-  
Her lips so red, bewitched by 
summer's end-

One April day, he walks into the forest
The sun greets him like a reluctant flame  
Melting the veil of secrets, capturing his eyes- 
He comes close and kisses Beauty's lips,   
so cold like ice- 

Beneath his fierce embrace,  
She takes her first breath, coming  
Alive with the softest shade of pink -
The wood trembles, like a tide turning
In mid-stream, her eyes awake, so blue,
the anguish of a storm- 

Then, she heaves again, failing
Like a weary bloom, deadly is the frosty 
Wind that bites on delicate skin, 
Color of an unripened apple,
too early, too soon - 

He could not awaken her -
Not with words nor songs from the robins-   
So he places white tulips & pine cones 
On her chest, and tuck back her long hair.   
Shutting down the coffin, he leaves the forest,
A lonely traveler, perplexed with 
false spring - 


Posted for D'verse Poets Pub and Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Happy Easter ~
Shared with Poets United Picture credit:   here