Nazia Sultan Poet Free verse

A Kaleidoscope at Twelve

Prompt: ~ Kaleidoscope of Emotional Suffering


        A Kaleidoscope at Twelve


I grew up on glass slippers and midnight promises,  
On ballrooms where even orphans could be queens.  
I believed clocks only struck to begin the dance.

Then you came, and the glass turned.

FIRST TURN: THE GOLDEN HOUR  
You found me in ashes and called me light.  
We danced until the walls melted into air.  
Music stitched my torn heart with threads of gold.  
For one night, I was not a shadow in the corner.  
I thought some magic was carved in stone.

SECOND TURN: THE SHATTERING  
But clocks are guillotines in disguise.  
Twelve struck on the wall like a hammer on glass.  
I ran.  
One shoe stayed behind — a ghost of the dream.  
The carriage, the gown, the girl — all unraveled into smoke.

THIRD TURN: THE EMPTY PATTERN  
They say the prince searched the kingdom with my shoe.  
But kingdoms have short memories and glassy eyes.  
He remembered the slipper, not the soul that filled it.  
And I was left with the echo of twelve,  
A bell tolling in every empty room after you.

They call it a fairy tale.  
I call it a kaleidoscope —  
The same story shattered into fragments:  
One shard of gold,  
One shard of glass,  
One shard of grief that will never fit back together.

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