Beast

He offered her beauty

and she knew the value of beauty,

so she accepted.

She thought that she had changed him,

that the animal had sloughed off

with the shape he had worn.

But even her beauty faded

and his beast remained –

she remembered that heavy step

from her first nights in the castle,

now creaking the stairs leading

to her daughter’s bedchamber.

copyright (c) 2003 and 2011 Daniel J. Bishop