Writing from prompts is so much fun, because the outcome is almost always a complete surprise. For me, it is exactly how Forrest Gump described a box of chocolates: “You never know what you’re going to get.”  I wrote this quickly, mostly focused on making silly rhymes, but reading it now, I guess today’s Daily Prompt: Elixir  must have gotten me thinking about what I’d want from a magic potion, how we view – and sometimes become a part of –  other people’s “magic” shows, and the real and true magic we hold inside ourselves.

The girl gazed at the magic man
The Queen of Hearts tucked in his hand

The card, in pieces, was torn through
As he promised to restore her to

The comfort of the fifty one
The Queen a pawn in all the fun

The young girl watched in full belief
Of the tricks he had up his sleeve

She wondered if in the dark arts
He dabbled when the stage was dark

What if he knew the strong elixir,
A potion which could finally fix her?

Oh, she’d be so pretty then
Smart and clever, witty when

A brave, beautiful girl was needed
To be publicly mistreated

When magic men sought not faint-hearted
Ladies to be sawed or darted

Or wrapped in chains, then plucked from danger
By the perpetrating stranger

But just as she began to ask
For a strong potion in a flask

And disappear all that was broken
Suddenly, the Queen had spoken

Her Highness gently, sadly scolded,
“Look at me, so cruelly folded

Torn into a thousand bits
Just to be his magic trick

I was the Queen of Hearts, you know!
He made me small just for his show

I’d been a strong and precious card
And now my face and hearts are scarred

But you, she said, with newfound ardor
You don’t have to be a martyr

Unnbroken, you are whole of parts
Untouched by the man’s saws and darts

Why would you volunteer to be
Sawed through, torn up, or unchained free?

My dear, you are your own Magician
Not the beautiful assistant

Do not be fooled by slight of hand
There’s no such thing as a magic man.”