another face of things

the handsome prince will get the peasant lass
that is a given in each fairy tale
but no one speaks of tankards of warm ale
or priests who mumble sacred words in mass
we hear of speaking salmon not of bass
of swords and knights but not of those who quail
before the stern-faced laywers or who fail
to hide the inopportune blast of gas
stories end in promise of happiness
but do not mention in all their matter
just what that means to those like you or i
whose worlds are all one vast unholy mess
whose days are filled with bother and clatter
and have no time to look up at the sky