Written by Katherine Ottaway MD

This poem is a response to a poem called “

I am the princess guarded by dragons snorting and grumbling and rumbling in wagons“, written by my sister, Christine Robbins Ottaway. She died of breast cancer in 2012, at age 49. She got the cancer at age 41.

I am the princess guarded by logic

By science, degrees and words pedagogic

I am the princess staying in school

seeming obedient to misogynist rule

I rack up a degree, residency next

study the landscape, study the texts

I am the princess who longs for a kiss

various frogs taste worse than horse piss

I am the princess flaying a man

who was already dead, to learn what I can

I am the princess, no wars fought for me

I fly under the radar, no one can see

I am the princess, perhaps I’m a queen

hide in a small town, nearly unseen

Treating my people while staying awake

Try to avoid being burned at the stake

I was a princess hiding from most

raising my offspring, I’d rather not roast

Text © Katherine Ottaway MD

Edge of Humanity Magazine’s

FREE Projects & Other Services

To Promote Works From Artists,

Photographers, Poets & Writers

PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK, SHORT STORIES & MUSIC Recommendations

FREE Platform For Artists NO MIDDLEMAN ART GALLERY

In The Mind Of An Artist

Open Submissions for Writers & Poets

Photo Curator

PRESS RELEASE On Edge of Humanity Magazine

Photography Articles