Beware! Beware! The Red Ballet Shoes! ... Poem by Shaun Cronick

Beware! Beware! The red ballet shoes!
A cursed gift you should always refuse!
For fame and fortune comes with a high price,
With these red ballet shoes that tempt and entice.
So beautifully seductive none have ever refused,
For no mortal woman can resist the lure of these shoes...

Beware! Beware! The red ballet shoes!
A cursed gift you should always refuse!
A voice of one and many fills your head,
So cold and haunting so full of dread.
A trick of the wind you quickly assume,
As you gaze at the parcel that is your doom...

You quickly unwrap your mysterious posted surprise,
Behold! Beautiful red ballet shoes that hold a grisly demise.
You breathlessly gasp and stare ethereally entranced,
These red ballet shoes are so fine, new and made to dance.
Spellbound you hold them closer and find a note inside,
Which you read aloud and become so mystified...

These red ballet shoes will take you afar,
And you will become Ballet's brightest star.
And great love and fortune will come your way,
But wear at your peril, for there is a price to pay.
This warning and shoes are yours to accept or abide,
A simple plain choice that's for you to decide...

The note ignored you slip them on and they fit like a glove,
Oh! These red ballet shoes so crimson, bewitching and snug.
And within a year you've become Ballet's greatest star,
For these red ballet shoes have taken you wide and far.
More famous and loved than Pavlova, Shearer and Fonteyn,
And now these red ballet shoes call for you to be slain...

You sleep like a princess, at peace and completely alone,
You awake screaming, experiencing true horror now shown.
The red ballet shoes are now back frightfully on your feet,
Tying themselves up excruciating tight your blood does excrete.
Your sobbing and cries can't be heard as you're guided along,
You fight you struggle but these evil red shoes are too strong,
And the high cruel rooftop beckons for your dying swan song.
A running start and then a leap and endless tears as you fall,
Your once beautiful body so tattered and torn a sight to appall...

Now dying you realize that distant faint voice at the start of it all
Were the ghosts of previous owner's whispering warning call...
Beware! Beware! The red ballet shoes!
A cursed gift you should always refuse!

Copyright Shaun Cronick.2020. All Rights Reserved.