She counts the ways in which
storytelling
saved her life:
Mommy and Daddy fighting.
Once, there was a girl who was born
smack-dab in the middle
of two warring kingdoms.
Daddy’s fists.
A monster came crashing
out of the woods
and attacked her.
Divorce.
The girl was forced
to flee her homeland
and live in exile.
At the new school,
the other children were cruel.
The villagers regarded her as strange,
but that was all right. She knew
a greater destiny awaited.
She had to get a job young.
A cruel master forced her
to clean the castle every single day,
from top to bottom. If she didn’t,
she had no coin with which
to buy food for her family.
Every day, every night, she built
castles and empires in her mind,
forged swords, bested chimeras,
breathed magic.
Then one day, she had
a little girl of her own.
When her little girl was still
just a baby, she fastened
a golden key around her neck
and bade her never take it off.
Little one,
this is the key to my kingdom.
May it bring you
the strength and joy
it’s given me.
We are storytellers.
Lauren Scharhag is the author of fourteen books, including Requiem for a Robot Dog (Cajun Mutt Press) and Languages, First and Last (Cyberwit Press). Her work has appeared in over 150 literary venues around the world. Recent honors include the Seamus Burns Creative Writing Prize, three Best of the Net nominations, and acceptance into the 2021 Antarctic Poetry Exhibition. She lives in Kansas City, MO. To learn more about her work, visit: www.laurenscharhag.blogspot.com
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