10.4.16 Once upon a time

She was writing the ending.
She was bringing the characters back home.
There was no more longing,
just an overall sense of serenity.

Where to begin, she tells him,
what's the problem.
It's all for naught.
Without a knock-out first line,
She knows this from Charlie.
Every story lives or dies on where you start.

Once upon a time,
and a very good time it was
all this happened, more or less.
It was love at first light.
It was truth universally acknowledged.
It was a dark and stormy night.

Carol Radzwill