The Voice from the Garden by Edward Cates and Anna Cates

A large tree in the middle of green woodland. Large white text reads: The Voice from the Garden. Smaller text reads: Discussing disabled characters in fairy tales and folklore.

oddly deformed
into heart-shaped
suitor’s rose bud
 
As I wandered the windswept hills 
I chanced upon a timeworn redoubt 
Cloaked in a brooding bramble veil 
Clutching its secrets tightly within 
From behind whose dour shoulders 
Emanated a soft, mellifluous voice 
Like the expectancy of springtime 
But the walls were tall and barbed 
Engrailed with the cruelest thorns 
But the Orphean tones of the voice 
Compelled my captivated thoughts 
To see who was ensconced therein 
So, I fought past the wicked thorns 
And scaled the treacherous height 
And when I reached the top at last 
I gazed down into a secret garden 
Where you waited amid the flowers 
Smiling as if you had expected me
 
atop the rock wall
dripping with bog water
the Frog Prince

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NOTE: Unitalicised text is the work of Edward Cates. Italicised text is the work of Anna Cates. 

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About the authors:
The late Edward Dana Cates (2/23/69-11/12/23) was a disabled househusband and writer/poet from Seymour, Indiana.  He attended George Fox University and served on Deviant Art’s literature committee, where he acquired many mutual fans and friends.  The original versions of his poems are fully illustrated a viewable at his online gallery:  https://www.deviantart.com/barosus/gallery.

Dr. Anna Cates teaches writing, literature, and education online and has published a variety of books (poetry, fiction, and drama) through www.cyberwit.net, prolificpress.com, redmoonpress.com, and wipfandstock.com.  Her full-length poetry collection, Love in the Time of Covid, won an Illumination Book Award.  She resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her two cats.