Ekphrastic Challenge, December 2017: Artist’s Choice
Image: “Cinderella Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” by Barbara Graff. “Cinderella Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” was written by Devon Balwit for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, December 2017, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
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CINDERELLA DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
Her princely marriage blighted mom. It wasn’t
what she thought, just different walls. She found
herself drawn to windows, parapets, the round
moon-face pulling her, asking why she hadn’t
left yet. So when we awoke to find her gone,
we weren’t surprised—although to father’s questions
we played dumb. We let him search, pursue notions
of re-wooing. We kids found traces on the lawn,
bare footprints in the dew, swatches of mistletoe
twining, bags of simples, bird skeletons hung
from lintels. Mother was about, still among
us—just changed. No scullion, no Highness, no
one but her deepest self, luminescent and wise.
We learned new ways to see her, not just our eyes.
—from Ekphrastic Challenge
December 2017, Artist’s Choice
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Comment from the artist, Barbara Graff: “Of all of the wonderful poems I read, I was drawn to Devon Balwit’s ‘Cinderella Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.’ This poem with its lovely imagery, gently touches the soul of what I tried to bring forth in the painting.”
