"7 Deadly Sins: Twisted Fairytales" series of poems.
Each will take a fairytale or traditional story and take a more macabre view of its events, incorporating one of the seven deadly sins.
If anyone has any suggestions for upcoming sin/story pair-ups, be my guest.
This of course, is based off Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's (or Disney's -_-) "Beauty and the Beast", written from the Beast's perspective.
I chose to gender-bend the Beast as I found it easier to relate to and we generally don't imagine the princesses in fairytales to be cruel, cold-hearted and ugly.
The Beast's thoughts prior to her "Beauty" (or her Beau's) coming. It's her vanity and self-righteousness that's gotten her here. It's a little late to regret her past. To be perfectly honest, as a writer, I can relate frighteningly well to this one.
whIte petals falling from a pure, flawless rose,
eAch snowy angel barely making a sound
where it falls on the glass table below
she watches the rose with a frozen stare,
desperation in her insoMniac's eyes,
shivering Tears linger in her matted hair
as the mutilated form watcHes the coming of her own demise.
enchanted servants pass outsidE her door,
endlessly cursing their cruel mistress within
but they dare not scorn her decaying Body,
she pays her debt with fangs and festering skin.
no make-up can mask her fEarful ugliness,
so she's become a prisoner, forced to hide
in a thorny palace, ashAmed of herself,
for no real beauty ever lurked inside.
she once thought herSelf an immortal goddess,
her beauty and Talent, no one could hold to.
but, alas, her heart was cold and tainted by Pride.
and secretly broken from events that no one quite knew.
but nor did they want to know her pain,
for she was a spoiLed, glutton of a princess,
greedy, jealous, impossibly vain
and constantly complaining in facades of distress.
"pity mE, servants, give me your sympathies,
for I am beautiful yet deplored.
they envy me for my gentle grace
and though I have riches, I desire more!"
"you are all lazy, weak and Shrewd,
constantly forgetting to fawn over me.
now pay me tributE with gold and gift
sand fair jewels from across the sea!"
the princess once admired herself in a ruby's scarlet mirror,
gazing at the stone,
so akin to her own soul. cold.
Hardened. sharpened.
pretty to look at?
yes.
but hardly anything more...
that was long ago, though her coldness rEmains,
her ugliness now shows on the outside.
she's cursed to be a beast- a pathetic creature of filth,
forced to live beneath this mangLed hide.
"oh that I would return to that cold, winter's eve,
when I sneered at a sorcerer's shabby gift,
I'd give uP my riches, my status, my wealth...
if only this cruel curse would lift!"
he came to her doorstep, half-dead from the frost,
and though his pockets were lined with no gold,
he offered the Malign beauty a single rose
in return for shelter from the bitter cold.
but the princEss just cackled and turned him away,
ordering him to be dragged from her gates,
but before the fair demon Could utter a word
she found that it was all too late.
"dear princess, you are selfish and unkind," he proclaimed,
as his eyes shone like dazzling stars."
and I curse yOu with ugliness, a beastly visage,
so the whole world can see the Monster you truly are!
this rose will bloom 'til your twenty first yEar
by which time you must find love that is true,
if you heart succumbs, your beauty will be restored,
if not, as the last petAl falls, so will you!"
her servants were cursed also, slaves to her crime,
their bodies twisted in metal and porcelaiN stone.
some still beg her to try and break the curse
,most have abanDoned her, spitefully leaving her alone.
her parents, the nameless king and queen, who once paid for her lessons in dance, literature, music and etiquette- sculpted her into an ideal ice-statue- died long before they could ever see the cold beauty grow.
the heaRt that they conceived and carved from flint stone yet never cuddled or cradled.
"they raised me to be pErfect," she mourns quietly. "perhaps it's best that they are dead so they cannot see me now- poor monster..."
her Slaves are somewhat deaf to her sobbing,
so she's learned to keep quiet by choiCe.
and only growls now escape her crooked jaws-
she's been long robbed of her lovely voice.
she's long learned the hard lesson, that gold and jewels,
however beautiful, cannot love or caress
and Under hoops of crinoline, the lace of a straining corset,
a broken heart has finally started to bEat in her chest.
the twisted shadow has finally seen her sins
but her soul's overcome with despair,
for who could ever love such a Monster?
any man would prefer a princess, flighty and fair.
shE’s long given up on her yearnings,
but her heart’s overcome with stinging fear
a mirror iS her only window to the world-
her escape from the cOld, so austere.
any companion she’s had, has long since left
she has no wealth to Offer them, to serve
and who wouldn’t be ashamed to stand at her side?
give her loyalty that she doesn’t deserve.
“I’m sorry,” she sobs, wheN she’s left all alone,
her lips rattle with each lonely breath.
and she’d take her life with that one gleaming blade,
but she’s cowardly and afraid of death.
years pass, patience thIns,
the beastly princess Continues to stare,
wAtching the blooming rose with disdain
alone.
waiting for the fateful, Solemn day
when she’ll be sitTing there in that room
hIdden from the world,
Listening the loneLy dripping of rain, ignorantly striking the window, sore.
afraid of her own reflection
in her glass teardrops, wHere they lie...
A final pale, white petal falls,
an angel falling from grace
and as the seraph settles to its grave
so does the demoN, with a once-pretty face.
Garish, this nightmare haunts her mind
but hope’s a thing that’s strange,
and perhaps she’ll yet meet the one
the hero who’ll help her changE.
Tue Aug 23, 2011 4:50 pm
To be honest, there's not much difference between the Disney version and the original story other than the addition of two jealous sisters and a helluva lot more angst. 
*hugs*