STRESSFUL STRAINS

[A Fantasy - I hope ... ]

When I'm asked for a story of strain and of stress,
I remember the tale of the fairy Princess.
She lived long ago, no matter how long,
For her fame lives forever in tale, verse and song.
The Princess was greedy. She said 'twas life's stresses.
She ate far too much and grew out of her dresses.
Her Couturier said: "I really can't charge her:
Before a gown's finished, she's two sizes larger!

"The King comes tomorrow: it's time to be drastic.
I've designed her a gown which is made from elastic."
At the King's mighty feast, the Princess blamed stress
As she stuffed herself full and she strained at her dress.
Then she heaved a deep sigh: with a creak and a crack
An overstressed seam parted right down her back!
The next thing to go was the Princess's skin.
The strain was too great: it could not keep her in.

She'd lived all her life with the ways of a hog,
Now she popped from her skin and appeared as - a frog!
While the King mourns his daughter, she lives in the drains
Through her failure to balance her stresses and strains.
If the greedy Princess hadn't strained till she stressed,
She'd have stayed in her skin and lived royally dressed.
To blame greed on stress is a feeble excuse,
You may strain to accept it: you'll find that no use.

So the moral, my friends, of this horrible tale
Is to balance your stresses and strains on the scale.
Each side must be equal, not more and not less,
Or you'll end as a frog, like the greedy Princess.
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