Oh fair, fairest Snow White
reposed upon the dirt-laid floor
swimming in a rivulet of
precious ruby droplets of blood and gore.

Heinously murdered by her miniature
minions of lore. These diabolical dwarves.
“Hi-Hoe, Hi-Hoe, Snow White
is no more,” they gloriously crow.

This lurid plot began when Dopey
laced her morning libation, with just a
smidgen of hemlock’s tainted weed
courtesy of their puppeteer, the Evil Queen.

Once a sanguine spirit, Snow White now lay ashen
and unconscious. Unable to ward off Sleepy
from deflowering what she held most dear.
Uninterrupted, her honor was left shattered and unclear.

Little Happy, the idiot of the bunch, sat in the
corner, rocking haplessly as globules of drool
cascaded down his child-like chin.
“Hi-Hi, Hi-Hoe Snow White, Hi-Ha Hi-Hi,”
he insanely laugh once more.

Old Grumpy was being his usual querulous self.
Surly and cantankerous screaming, “that if caught, we
would all be in the direst straits.
Hi-hoe, Hi-Hoe, we have to eat her face.”

Seeing the wisdom and his odd and bad-tempered words,
Bashful saw his duty to be plain, thus bashing
her head into a rust-colored stain.
The crimson pearls fell like rain.

As her heart faded to sporadic, gasping beats
Doc stepped in with a sharpened scalpel
with his tool he removed a vital organs, determined
to sell them to the highest bidder in a grisly explosion.
“Hi-Hoe, Hi-Hoe, it's off to the bank we go!”

The only thing left was for Sneezy to do his handy work.
OCD came to the rescue in the form of a cleaning quirk.
Sleepy’s DNA was extracted with precision care, while
Bashful's fingerprints were removed in an acidy dare.
“Hi-Hoe, Hi-Hoe, the seven dwarves are innocent,” is the story they told.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is the fairest one of all?”
asked the Evil Queen upon hearing of Snow
White’s morbid demise.
“You are!” Snow White replied as she snatched
the Queen inside. Blackened souls take over
in a fairy tale revised.

//Bryan Palmer is a contributor to The Periphery.