I Am Santo

Fiction, poetry, music and mindscape pictures by creative artist Jason Santo

Mirror mirror, asked on that wall. For you are the fairest of them all. Can you not see? This fairy tale holds no place for others. This happily ever after is yours and no one else’s. Princes may come and go, but your beauty and this divine reflection will stay forever, assuring you of the truth: there cannot be another as lovely in this world, or in any other, real or imagined. Set your teeth upon the apple and taste wicked futures where dreams of lust crowd like crippled forests at night, like the notions of forgiveness swimming in the fright of others who cannot claim as you do the throne of unapproachable affection. For you are the dream. You are the fruit. You are the pure descendant of Eden, at home in children’s stories; alive only in fictions where snakes speak sweetly of temptation and crones with knobby knuckles eliminate their competition. And who are you? Siren or klaxon? Savior or warning? The shrill cry of beauty is a hung note in the gallows of melodic reflection. Try, try, try, sweet girl, and look forward to that day when the looking glass cannot tell you anything you don’t already know: that it’s there already, in the heart, that truth. That undeniable return from the sea of cast off jealousies that ran fathoms deep, but surfaced like whale breath, like a stolen rib, like a queen’s ire when someone else dared alabaster’s sheen to a contest. Oh you always win. The perfect always get what they want. Too bad greed disallows desire, a book starved of revelation; a tale without an antidote kiss.

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The truest of writing prompts, the enigmatic @alice.artc blessed me with this shot and a “mirror mirror” reference which resulted in the edit you see and the words you may have had the patience to read. Thank you, dear Alice, as always, for being such a tremendous muse.

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poetrycommunity #igwriters #iamwriting #collaboration #muse #lovely #beauty #doeyes #beautifulwoman #portrait #mirror #reflection (at Mirror Mirror)

Maybe it was the roundness of her eyes or the deep warm brown of her irises that hinted at a universe of thoughts she had swirling like galaxies in her mind. Inviting the curious. It was as if the firmament went out. She wondered if her eyes now just held cold dead space that no one was brave enough to stare into; a hungry abyss that was the color of her loneliness. Men and women. They seemed unable to look at her any longer, despite assurances of her ravishing beauty. She stepped into solitude, a maiden draped in knowledge and robust heart instead of silk finery and reticence; her mind as limitless as night sky and to be spoken! Perhaps they found such forthrightness unbecoming. Let them. She had bigger plans than to appease, and if she was as lovely as each said with their candle wax pronouncements dripping from their wary lips, she would trim their wicks with a quick sideways glance, hinting that those fires still burned within her; those faraway suns possessed even more mystery than ever. It was then she smiled again, confident in stride. Relegated to nothing and no one.  Aware that her definitions defied and her value needn’t any assessment. 

./.

Sometimes a story resides in a simple glance. Thank you to @theeglantine, as always, for allowing me to steal a tale from her always expressive beauty. She could have written it better, but I’m still glad to have had the shot. Her photo, my edit and words.

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poetrycommunity #igwriters #iamwriting #collaboration #muse #lovely #beauty #doeyes #beautifulwoman #portrait (at On Approach)