Cinderella Poetry

Questions of the Hour
by Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt
(1836–1919)

“Do angels wear white dresses, say?
Always, or only in the summer? Do
Their birthdays have to come like mine, in May?
Do they have scarlet sashes then, or blue?

“When little Jessie died last night,
How could she walk to Heaven—it is so far?
How did she find the way without a light?
There was n’t even any moon or star.

“Will she have red or golden wings?
Then will she have to be a bird, and fly?
Do they take men like presidents and kings
In hearses with black plumes clear to the sky?

“How old is God? Has he gray hair?
Can He see yet? Where did He have to stay
Before—you know—he had made—Anywhere?
Who does He pray to—when He has to pray?

“How many drops are in the sea?
How many stars?——well, then, you ought to know
How many flowers are on an apple-tree?
How does the wind look when it does n’t blow?

“Where does the rainbow end? And why
Did—Captain Kidd—bury the gold there? When
Will this world burn? And will the firemen try
To put the fire out with the engines then?

“If you should ever die, may we
Have pumpkins growing in the garden, so
My fairy godmother can come for me,
When there’s a prince’s ball, and let me go?

“Read Cinderella just once more——
What makes—men’s other wives—so mean?” I know
That I was tired, it may be cross, before
I shut the painted book for her to go.

Hours later, from a child’s white bed
I heard the timid, last queer question start:
“Mamma, are you—my stepmother?” it said.
The innocent reproof crept to my heart.

from A Woman's Poems (1878)