Table of Contents

  Introduction
  1. Mapping the Ways
  2. Spinning the Tales
  3. Voices & Viewpoints
  4. Spell Binding & Spell Breaking
  5. Magical Objects
  6. Desire & Its Discontents
  7. The Grimm Sisterhood
  8. Variations & Updates
  9. Ever After, Or a Few Years Later
  10. Living the Tales
  About the Authors
  Acknowledgments
  Selected Bibliography
  Index of Poems by Tale
  Index of Authors and Titles
  About the Editors

E S T H A    W E I N E R

Transfiguration Begins at Home

The "Cinderella Staircase" divided upstairs
from downstairs     its curves of elegance
branded early on the child     who turned it
into a story     over     and over again
The person who started at the top     was
never the person     who reached the bottom
The one who climbed it     from the bottom was
always different at the top     Cinderella
could turn into a princess     A prince could
turn into a frog     Before a father could
descend it with a daughter on his arm
to give her away    in marriage     a daughter
would ascend it     with a father on her arm
to give him away     to silence     Anything
is possible