THERE ONCE WAS A FAIRY

by Sydney Darnell
(Inland Empire)

There once was a fairy
Whose sprite name was Sheri
She loved cosmic dust made of starlight and dreams;

Her energy unbounded
Left others astounded
When she flew towards a point farthest from both extremes.

If you can listen well
Inside her own fairytale
You may hear gossamer wings flutter to take off in flight;
Wings made of strands
Woven by Grand-fairy hands
Taken from iridescent cobwebs of colors and light.

In the Beginning:

Sheri's story started off
Before her parents had darted off
To whirl and twirl through lands of time and place;

A song to Grand-fairy
Trilled by a yellow canary
Told of a spiritual being, a tiny thing with a cameo face.

A wee one left behind
Completely intertwined
With magical moonbeams to keep her afloat;

Inside a bubble of fluids
Concocted by Druids
To becharm a flawless olive complexion, yellow breast and throat.

Sheri gracefully flourished
Was affectionately nourished
Curled up inside a light filled ball, full-grown, less than inches tall;


Grand-fairy decided to unpack
Her newest gift from its pocket-sized sac
Naturally she would have to install a lot of magic and that's not all.

Hatched near an endless pool
Somewhere near Titania's Flying School
Grand-fairy adjoined a pair of wings to the back of her charge;

The Flight-feathers lifted nicely
As Grand-fairy had predicted precisely
However, she wondered if they were just a bit too large.

Grand-fairy went into sudden shock
As Sheri zoomed around the block
Then, as if by hook-or-by crook, Grand-fairy grabbed a grappling hook;

Stars blinked twice
At the mechanical device
That sped in double-quick time through the Queendom;

Grand-fairy yelled "STOP!"
Told Sheri to "DROP!"
"You don't need to ride wind-up toys for a sense of freedom.

One day Sheri got tangled
All dingy and dangled
And hung like an ornament from the branch of a tree;

Far from the tallest
Almost the smallest
She was Grand-fairy's first ever light-sprite detainee.

Curious brown hair such a mess
As was her star-bejeweled dress
Unclouded blue eyes welled up with a single tear;

Her energy reversed
Her life unrehearsed
How to go outside the fantasy remained unclear.

While she continued hanging
Fairy bells began clanging
Soon the four winds bellowed with glee;


"Imitate the airstreams
"Nothing is as it seems
"Are you something special (just about) or a wanna-be?"

Sheri broke into song
And not before very long
Grand-fairy emerged like a butterfly from within her secret flower;

"Child, you look like a possum
"An upside down blossom
"You must take stock and reclaim your inherited Fairy power."

Sheri tucked in her silken wings
Tied them up like apron strings
And continued to hang upside down;

Dare she come to grips
Before the next Total Eclipse
Or continue to be the talk of all Fairy Town?

"Grand-fairy," she said
"I live with such dread
"To go in and explore esoteric parts of myself;

"I am not sure
"If I can endure
"To know if I'm a wanna-be, pixie, a gnome, a Sylph or elf."

Sheri thought and thought
Was she or was she not
Whom she believed herself to be in the beginning;

It was now or never
However stupid or clever
To discover the score at the top and bottom of each inning.

Grand-fairy from the elder race
Put on her most serious face
Her wing span spreading out to confront the occasion;

At the worst of this frustration
Sheri was in a stage of transformation
One that would require some gentle persuasion.


Grand-fairy's ways may be out of date
And true she's rather overweight
Intentions and inventions come straight from her matriarch's heart;

She has often provided
Ideas sort of lopsided
But what the heck, it was time to give her grandchild a kick-start.

Forget Granny's wrinkles
And all of her crinkles
It would be best to concentrate on her most righteous fairy wand;

She told little Sheri
It would be sort of scary
Traveling outside of Fairyland to a world just beyond.

JUST BEYOND . . .

Leaving Grand-fairy's protection
Endowed with a good sense of direction
Sheri passed through confusions and delusions of sorts;

She held up a pink velvet bag
Wondering about the time-lag
Then removed a translucent crystal dubbed Sunstone Quartz.

She managed to arrive unseen
Riding in on an electromagnetic beam
That opened a portal into a world where creatures walked without wings;

Spotting two washing machines
Sheri pulled out a pair of jeans
Then she wriggled and wiggled into the light fantastic of human things.

Of course it's rather strange and queer
That a fairy like Sheri would love it so here
Inhabiting a planet 3rd from the sun made up of seasons, reasons and lots of fun;

Listening to voices and minds
Coming from people of all kinds
She understood as a fairy in human guise, which was wise, she had only just begun.

Then it happened one sunny day
While she sat in the branch of a tree at play

She cell-phoned her Grand-Fairy right away
and informed her that she wanted to stay;

Her life no longer a pop-quiz
Nor a wanna-be, but a just AS IS
She would like to keep her wings and have some other fairy things shipped today.

Then she heard Grand-fairy sigh
"Oh my, oh my, oh my
"I understand you must do what you must;

"Be healthy, happy and whole
"Live near a positive northern magnetic pole
Suspended freely from the trees in varying degrees, nonplussed.

"I love you Grand-Fairy!"
"I love you MORE little Sheri!"
In their minds they whirled and twirled through all the lands of time and place;

Both on Fairy missions
Filled with magical suppositions
Of truth, realities, fantasies, adding ornaments, colors and grace.