Cinderella’s Lament

You might think I cry –
it’s just dust in my eye
from sweeping –
I should have been writing –
and my sisters aren’t so ugly
if I squint through tears.

They don’t have a poetic
bone in their bodies,
not even one that’s romantic,
creative or artistic,
which makes me wonder,
how are we related?

They never wash up,
do the laundry, sweep
the floor, tidy their rooms
or make anyone else
a cup of tea.
It’s all down to me!

And I write haiku in ash,
count meter as I scrub,
scribble sonnets while I wash,
in soap as I have no ink
I write this sitting
in the kitchen sink.

Kim M. Russell, 24th February 2026

Cinderella by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)

This Tuesday at the dVerse Poets Pub, Punam is our host for Poetics, where we are exploring beginnings as endings.

She writes that we are all book lovers, and I couldn’t agree more. I love reading, but I can’t remember the first book I read. However, I do remember some opening line. I also agree that we poets agonise over first lines too, and for the same reasons as prose writers.  

Punam would like us to play around with interesting opening lines—with a twist. She has given us some short opening sentences to use as the closing lines of our poems. We can use punctuation in between as well as enjambment, and we must mention the author. I thought I’d have a bit of fun with the opening line from I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, one of my favourite books: “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”

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