Olga Grushin THE CHARMED WIFE

To my mother, Natalia Kartseva, and the memory of my grandmother Tamara Tomberg—the first storytellers in my life

Cinderella and the prince

lived, they say, happily ever after,

like two dolls in a museum case

never bothered by diapers or dust,

never arguing over the timing of an egg,

never telling the same story twice,

never getting a middle-aged spread,

their darling smiles pasted on for eternity.

Regular Bobbsey Twins.

That story.

Anne Sexton, “Cinderella”

Even a fruitful magic by degrees

Can wrap us in a dubious spell;

Tales that articulated mysteries

Now offer only ways of looking back,

As though across the ocean’s swell,

Or down alleys through the pine and tamarack.

Timothy Steele, “Summer Fairytale”

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