The Other Frog

Leave him alone, you foolish girl. You think
your precious kiss will turn him to a prince--
maybe it will. So what? As well turn quince
to crabgrass, lemonade to ink.
You call it an improvement? Hairy skin,
a throat that cannot swell with calls of love,
a stilt-like figure teetering above
the ground God gave us creatures to live in!
It's vanity that would remake a frog
to something like itself: that would extract
guiltless amphibian from honest bog.
And I, his mate, forsaken, can enact
no better vengeance on your fairy tale
than this: to make a milkmaid spill her pail.

Collection available! Knocking from Inside