Sitting on the couch
watching a Disney musical
and singing along
with my daughter,
we cackle like the evil queen
and purr with the catty girls,
practicing in cruel registers
we seldom use,
and I think how it is
we are drawn to imitate
that which repulses us,
how strange the words taste
in my mouth, like candy
from a foreign land,
and how our eyes flicker
with playful light
as we scowl and curse
and deride. And my daughter
snuggles in closer to me,
and I kiss her head,
and we watch till the end,
though we’ve seen it
at least five times before
and know exactly what will happen.
There is comfort, perhaps,
in reminding ourselves
how the good prevails.
We are like children who have been
lost in a dark wood while playing games,
then see a wall of sunlight
in the distance
and make a run for it.