The Lady With No Name And The Prince With The Golden Touch (A Crazy, Anachronistic Musical Fairy Tale)
There was once a young lady whose voice and beauty were beyond compare,
a young lady who in light of the next point shall remain unnamed for the most part of this tale.
She, like most ladies (and gentlemen), had a name of course.
But a cruel witch, jealous of her charm and grace, put her under a grave curse.
One sunny afternoon, while she was in the garden
humming along with a robin perched on a tree,
the witch suddenly appeared out of thin air, cursed her and, of all things,
took her name away from her memory (as well as from the minds of those who knew the poor lady).
In her demented and horrible voice, she told the girl,
“From now on your name is mine, it is mine to keep.
And unless you find your one true love,
you shall forever be nameless and weep!”
Then she vanished, leaving the lass crying on her knees.
She had mustered all her powers of recall but her name she’d still miss.
She asked her mother, her father, the florist and the butcher,
but even they couldn’t think of her lifelong moniker.
But just as she was about to break down and give up,
an old man walked by and asked for some food and perhaps a refreshing cup.
Flustered and helpless but ever so kind,
she had never been one to pay no mind.
In exchange for her generosity, he handed her a small shimmering block and an ivory cord,
and bade her go and see the lonely prince beyond the ford.
The Everglow by Mae
As it turned out, there was once also a young prince whose handsomeness was a sight to behold.
And he also possessed the awesome ability of turning things into gold.
Now one might get the idea that with a power like that
he could have everything he wanted: a golden mattress, a golden cat.
But, alas, it just wasn’t so for even if he could tap anything, heavy or light,
and wrap it in precious metal, he knew in his heart that something was not right.
To be sure, the prince was not born with the amazing ability of his.
Like it was only yesterday, he could still remember when he refused to give the witch a kiss.
Indeed, she was the same mean witch
who put the young beautiful lady in her awful ditch.
To punish the prince, over him she loomed
and cast a spell to make his every touch send forth aurum.
After that he did not dare go near another woman, or another person for that matter,
lest he touch them and they fall to the ground and shatter.
Suspension by Mae
Until a fateful mid-February night Prince Jasper with the touch of gold
heard a lovely voice from the great hall, his name it called.
And then he saw her, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
He was quite certain no amount of gold could come close to her sheen.
Then he sighed, I could never be with her, he thought,
I couldn’t risk being near her or touching her, I must avoid both.
But the damsel spoke, “Inside my satchel are really peculiar things.
A thin silver bar and two white strings.
“They’re called an iPod touch and a pair of Apple earphones with mic.
A wise old traveller called Uncle Steve thought they’re stuff that you might like.”
She told the prince that she had a hunch that if he would only take them,
the curse that was cast upon him will at last be broken.
The prince carefully took the anachronistic artifacts from their case
and was astonished by what instantly took place.
When he touched them, they were not covered in a deep lustrous yellow.
Rather, three golden scrolls materialized and on the face of the iPod touch a golden icon waved hello.
“Salutations,” the musical note on the icon announced,
“I am Midomi and I am an app that has mastered music and sounds.
“Dear prince, you are now free from your unusual bondage.
Let us now help this lady break out of her cage.
“For she at the moment is without a name,
and to identify her appellation is our immediate aim.”
Midomi continued, “Open the golden scrolls one at a time,
and I, aided by the magical mic, will decipher each and every rhyme.”
The prince was determined to help his now beloved,
so the first golden parchment he promptly unrolled.
And from the scroll itself emanated
tranquil music and a voice that stated,
You come over unannounced / Silence broken by your voice in the dark /
I need you here tonight just like the ocean needs the waves.
And as he opened the second, a lovely bird entered the room.
It was a robin and it gorgeously hummed,
Here’s a night and it shines / And it calls us on and on /
So be here by my side and watch the stars.
Finally, when he rolled out the third piece,
nothing happened but he did as he pleased.
Somehow he knew what was to be
and copied the words on the paper into Midomi:
All I know is I believe / In the very thing that got us here /
And now I can’t leave.
For each song, Midomi came up with the title and the artist.
Definitely, pure magic was how it did this.
According to the app, the first song was The Ocean, the second The Everglow, and the last Suspension.
And it turned out all three songs are from the same band of musicians.
“Short for Multisensory Aesthetic Experience,” Midomi shared, happy and gay,
“These musically-inclined men simply call themselves Mae.”
“That’s my name! I remember it now!” exclaimed the young lady named Mae
and who starting at this juncture shall be known that way.
Then all of a sudden she became silent as she also remembered the witch’s warning:
Unless she finds her one true love she shall spend the rest of her days weeping.
“Now that would mean that,” Mae began, whose eyes were now glistening.
“You’re my one true love,” finished Prince Jasper, “And next to you, gold is nothing.”
This poetic pandemonium is proudly
