There’s More to a Book

The bones of the

story of Beauty and Beast

are deception and danger:

he hardly kept peace

as he circled his castle

with claws and with rage

and Beauty was trapped

in the walls of his cage.

 

But she read and she listened

and watched and she kept

busy, earned freedom,

then got up and left–

returning to life

she had left in the city

where people were groomed

and where things were more pretty.

 

But remembering Beast

all alone in his lair

she packed her things up

and she traveled back there.

For she’d seen his true being

and realized she cared;

she’d grown from the girl

the Beast had once scared.

 

She followed this reasoning

to see past his looks:

for the cover’s important

but there’s more to a book.

See, a person’s a person

no matter how scary,

no matter how grumpy,

no matter how hairy.