Ducks and Swans

image courtesy of Magpie Tales

I was never beautiful

Never swam with the swans

their soft feathers

graceful, white necks blooming with

bright pink buds of

boys' affections

Beautiful girls turned heads

I turned pages of books

My lovers were paper

vellum princes

who didn't mind if the princess was

too fat, too skinny, too, too, too

What if the ugly duckling 

never grew into a swan 

but into an ugly duck?

Would anyone love it then?

or would it be hung 

by its gangly neck

in the window of a Chinese restaurant?

submitted for Magpie Tales 87

and One Single Impression, Prompt 190, Paper