There is a legend our grandparents told About a princess whose heart had grown cold Her beauty, they say, was a joy to behold With blood-red lips in a coffin of gold They say an apple became her demise And closed, forever, those dark, brooding eyes Their story became a well-spun disguise Until two brothers uncovered their lies The princess was real, with skin white as snow But there were some facts we weren’t to know So the brothers set off, hoping to show How the elders forged her story of woe Armed with lost knowledge, they followed her trail They searched high and low, but to no avail Until one evening, they heard an old tale That pointed them toward a forgotten vale Feeling great triumph, the brothers took note Of the old tower, hidden and remote Finding a rowboat that was still afloat They used it to cross the perilous moat Once in the tower, they climbed to the peak But there was no princess, cursed and unique Next was the dungeon, so dreary and bleak And that’s where they found their princess mystique “Christ, she’s a beauty” one brother now said The other just stared while shaking his head For there lay the princess, shrouded and dead A coffin of gold her eternal bed With a sense of dread, they removed the top Of fragile glass, it was easy to swap One of the brothers believed they should stop But the other one could not let it drop They struggled a moment which broke the glass And one brother called the other an ass While they were bickering -throwing the sass A small drop of blood disrupted the lass The princess, it seems, was merely asleep And when she awoke, the brothers did weep Her eyes were glowing, unnaturally deep And her smile was both charming and steep “Well now, isn’t this a refreshing treat!” The princess purred as they fell at her feet The elder brother went white as a sheet As their dreadful princess rose from her seat “I’ve been asleep for an eternity Since that witch came and blighted my spree Back when my kingdom was wild and free But my long future I failed to foresee” The elder brother let out a loud squeal As the dreadful princess grabbed him with zeal Her eyes were black-her teeth sharp as steel “It’s been ages since I last had a meal.” She opened his throat and soon drank her fill While the younger one watched, frozen and still She drained the body with decades of skill Then threw the vessel away with a thrill So, the brothers’ journey ended in slight For one brother died at the hands of Snow White The other one stayed and served out of fright And he knew, in the end, that the elders were right.
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