A genie came to me today
with a different sort of deal.
“I’ll give you just one wish,” he said
“One wound that you can heal.”
So I sat upon the wishing tree
and contemplated my position.
I thought of heaven and of hell
and the price of their admission.
“What have you decided, girl?”
the genie said to me.
I said “You’ve given me just one wish
because you’ve heard the pain in me.”
The genie just stared
with a different sort of stare
and waited, not impatiently,
for my words to mix with air.
“Genie,” I said to him, standing from the tree.
“It seems you’ve set yourself a trap,
but the prey will not be me.”
I walked away from a genie today
and left his wish behind.
Sometimes price exceeds value,
and desires become unkind.
C. Brown 