Ella's Prayer

Ella stands alone beside her mother’s unkempt grave,
searching for a meaning in the life she now must brave.
A woman new reclines upon her gentle father’s bed,
with daughters two, a royal man they seek one day to wed.

In time, the sisters' ruthless ways robbed Ella of her voice;
a sunlit future shadowed by her father’s bridal choice.
The daughters brash became like cyclones twisting in the wind,
for Ella’s rights they vowed to somehow stealthily rescind.

Before a year had passed, they’d driven Ella to the floor
to scrub and sweep both grime and pride beneath a heavy door.
Her father blind, her mother gazing helpless from the skies,
Ella by the grave today lifts wide, crushed-emerald eyes

to ask of God a humble question earnestly in prayer…
“Have you abandoned me, divinity? Are you ever really there?”
Tomorrow Ella dances with a prince whose love she keeps...
but she knows not her future fine as, sorrowful, she weeps.