By Ian Gray
My parents are my best friends
Or is it were?
I do not know
It is hard to say anymore
Did Snow White like her parents?
Her dad was absent
Her mother was dead
Her stepmother wished her dead
What did she feel as she ran?
Through the woods
Far from a life she knew
Far from a life that nearly killed her
Would she have run if she knew?
The frightening woods
Her stepmother’s relentless pursuit
A poison apple
I knew something was wrong
Why did I not ask?
A scared student
A scared son
Would Gretel have known?
Even if she did not hear
By the look of her mother
The pain of her father
Could they have talked?
Before the abandonment
Before the hunger
Before the witch
Where did they find hope?
Pebbles on a path
A scrawny bone
Her quick shove
We sat in the kitchen
Was the food supposed to be comforting?
A father no longer invincible
A son no longer a child
Does cancer have a place in fairy tales?
Only a sorcerer could concoct such a curse
A scientific reality
And a scientific mystery
Would Bluebeard’s wrath be this frightening?
A sorcerer can be outsmarted
A sorcerer can be stabbed
His house does fall
Where does one stab illness?
An invisible enemy
Arriving in silence
Leaving silence
I thought we would thrive together
Did he look forward to the future as much as I?
I wanted to be a team
Working, laughing, living
How did Jack’s father die?
I want Jack’s curiosity
His courage
His luck
Was his void ever filled?
His empty stomach
His empty soul
A boy in need of magic
Can I still kill giants?
Because I really need to
Jack did
But not everyone does
I need a promise
Is it too abstract a request?
A promise to hold
A promise kept
From where do promises come?
To where do promises go?
Are they steady and unchanging?
Or dynamic, full of life’s complexity?
I will be a promise
Standing firm for my family
Listening to life’s lyric
Holding tight, never letting go
In the summer of 2016, a week before Ian started his senior year of high school, his father was diagnosed with cancer. Treatment began shortly thereafter. His father spent Ian’s 18th birthday in the hospital fighting to survive a major surgery, which he did. The cancer, however, returned a few months later, and a couple weeks before Ian’s high school graduation, his father died.
Ian considers his biggest blessing in life to be his parents. His admiration for his mother grows every single day as she continues to lead him and his two younger sisters. Ian strives to make his parents proud and be a son deserving of such wonderful parents.
Ian is inspired by fairytales, magic, and the inherent promise buried within fairytales. Though there are many ways one could describe this promise, Ian’s father got to its essence in his consistent, steady reminder, “God is still on His throne.”
