Today we debut a poetic piece by Afra Atiq  for this month’s theme “The wait” expressing her thoughts on how sometimes women need to wait for men to come and save them. Happy Reading

I grew up with fairy tales

Sang songs with Cinderella

About the better life

Believed that someday my prince

will come with Snow White

I fell in love with Prince Eric

the very first time

I saw him in the on that ship

My heart fluttered with Pocahontas

Seeing John Smith

For the first time

These character’s lives unfolded

Along side mine

For the longest time

I felt like I knew who

They all were inside

Their problems, their losses

Their battles, their successes

Were not only theirs

But also mine

But even fairy tales come with a price

I developed this mentality that every time I needed to be rescued

A prince would save me

But not just help me out

Kind of save me

I’m talking about

The epic kind of save me

The destroy-the-demons-kind-of-save-me

The greatest battle of all time

then ride off into the sunset

kind of save me

In fact, I was so convinced

that the first time a prince didn’t

Come to save me

I told myself that his horse

took him the wrong way

Days came & days went

But still I waited

Months came & months went

Still no prince in sight

No rescuing me from my plight

Years came & years went

But I still waited

And waited

And waited some more

Until I finally realized

That I lost more than time

In that instance

I lost myself waiting for that prince

I believed in fairy tale endings

Only good things impending

Yellow brick roads to lead me home

Castles, crows, daytime adventures

And storybook sunsets

In everyone of those things I believed

Yeah I guess I was

Pretty freaking naïve

I thought every man was a Prince Philip or a John Smith

I thought men were

Supposed to be

Rushing in to save me

Dashing, daring, escaping

The clutches of doom

Without so much a scratch

But it wasn’t easy

Realizing this

I must be the first to admit

It was tough

Seeing that I wasn’t in a fairy tale land of magic bean stalks

And animals that talk

But how else would I realize

that I didn’t need to compromise

Myself waiting for a prince’s help

All I ever needed was a little ambition and refusal to let any opposition

Steer me in the wrong direction

Because the wait is over

I realize now that the wait is over

Society and fairy tales

Have tried to teach women

That we are helpless

Powerless without a man

Without a prince

Because even fairy tales

Come with a price

But this time the odds have changed

And I’ve changed the whole game plan

They say time waits for no man

Well I say this woman needs no man, she can save herself

Author: Afra Atiq