the fairy godmother

once upon a time, or late last spring in this mean city, a fairy godmother got hired by the county to change the world, or so she thought, yet she was young, and not very street smart, but she really wanted to help, save the children, make families whole again, within the confines of the system of course,

her goal was to get everything needy people wanted and every want they needed, in the name of the idealistic goodness, and even possibly get more than she ever dreamed of, or reasonably hoped for, and she had a brave heart, lovely and quaint and frail, in her hand she held a list of people who needed her, and in her other hand she had a magic wand, and lamp to grant wishes, and special bells, and a spring in her step, and a crimson carriage to drive through the streets, she also had a college degree, not a terrible waste at all, but oops, they forgot to teach her about people, and politics and problems, and the streets with their sharp pieces, but no matter, she was a quick learner, cum laude, in case you didn't know,

her first stop and no bodies home, not a soul. the family left, tipped off that she was comin',

her second stop, almost stopped her cold dead in a standoff, with a lord who drank too much but who eventually put his gun away, and called off his pit-bull dragons, she left fast, shaken, she cried to her supervisor at the office, and he called the police for her, (she couldn't dial the phone), they removed the children, and arrested the big, mean man, who threatened to kill her, after he sobered up (he was out after he sobered up, on his own recognizance), later that afternoon, nobody told her about that, and the fact that the lord of this castle promised to be nice to everyone, and never drink again, and...well he said he'd do it, and the kids were back home later, and the family was reunited, pending a court date, a hundred years from now,

the fairy godmother seemed lost, she tried her magic wand, maybe the batteries were low? already? she ate a nauseous lunch, with other fairy godmothers, who told her their bedtime stories about the trenches, and those stories were worse than hers, and that made her feel afraid, they also reminded her to buy a suede leather coat, to keep the cockroaches from laying golden eggs in her clothes,

later, her last case involved an old lady, a mother, (for lack of a better word), actually a stepmother of four of the six children, who all lived in this shoe, in this mean city, once upon a near quittin' time, but the fairy godmother was dedicated, and visited the stepmother of these kids,

she met the youngest of the six, who asked for three wishes: love, slippers, and a prince, but the fairy godmother couldn't come through, and the girl cried and said, "she lied," the fairy social worker couldn't make them wishes come true, her wand was definitely broken, and would probably need to go to the shop, and the lamp was burned-out, already? cheap bulbs, and the bells stopped tinkling in the spring breeze,

besides, the stepmother had the custody papers, in her fat twisted hands, and the fairy godmother social worker bitch couldn't touch those kids, or remove them from that home, 

and none of the wishes were granted that day, and the fairy godmother went home, ready to quit, and well that's the end of the story...or so you thought,

for the fairy godmother still works downtown, and she still tries her wand now and again, (even though it still really doesn't work at all), and she traded in her carriage for a v.w. bug that still runs well, slightly rusted, and she does what she can, in her brown suede leather trench coat, and instead of three wishes, she grants three needs: food, a bed, some clothes, (clean or not), that's all the magic she can do, but she does try and try and...as she lives, sort of happily, ever after.

Greg Robinson

from September, 2000 issue