The Elfin Grott

The early morning mist clung to the branches like a reluctant lover lingering the embrace before the final moment of departure. The damp stretch of concrete was awakened by the caressing feet of joggers..the birds were slowly arising from their aerial dreams…
The dew drenched park donned the freshness of a young damsel just visited by adolescence. Sauntering down the leaf laden path I looked up to find the nascent rays peeping through the dark edges of the horizon….The sky appeared like a new bride, all rosy and flushed after a night of brimming intoxication and melting surrender..
I drank in the moist green with my roving eyes…and as the path came to a sharp bend I saw her!!! The surrounding trees screened her from public view yet her once majestic form was unmistakable. She was seated on a deserted bench, draped in faded brocade that whispered tales of once upon a time opulence. She sat with her chin almost caressing her neckline..eyes downcast, crossed hands loosely resting on her lap.
I tiptoed to the spot exercising extreme caution not to break her reverie. I stood there for sometime but she seemed to have made “oblivion” her lone watchword…nothing seemed to perturb her!!!  Suddenly to my consternation she lifted her pale face, a face redolent of a bygone impeccable beauty. The once marble smooth complexion now wan, wrinkles lurked around the corner of a Michelangelesque sculpted mouth..dark half moons cast their shadows under her weary eyes.
Before I could frame my query her silence impressed these words upon my mind...” I’m your beloved city..I have long bade farewell to my halcyon days…have travelled down the highways of time…history reduced me from riches to rags..over and over again my modesty has been outraged..society has walked over my soul. But I had my days of glory too when the sun shone brightly….I long for my lost grandeur…I walk the streets of torment like a spectre doomed forever….my chariot has vanished…my slippers broken….can you weave your magic? Will I be Cinderella once again?”