The poem Donkeyskin is based on the fairy tale Donkeyskin -- one of those tales that begins with an impossible situation. As a King's wife lies dying in childbirth, she makes him promise that he will only remarry if he can find a woman who can fit her wedding ring. The child is born -- a healthy girl who grows into adolescence in the shadow of her father's grief and her dying mother's promise. The ring of course only fits the daughter, and the King announces that he will marry his child. Though appalled, the court remains silent over this incestuous plan, and the girl is alone, with no one to protect her from this crime.
But the girl is resourceful and finds a variety of ways to avoid the impending marriage, finally begging for the skin of a donkey, which she covers herself with and escapes into the night. This story shares its troubling opening with The Armless Maiden: the suggestion of incest or abuse, and the certainty that the girl, once having fled, can not return to the palace. She must venture forth and find her way in the world, her beauty and royalty disguised by the skin. (There are so many versions of this story -- Sapsorrow, Tattercoats, Deerskin, and Allerleirauh. You can read a wonderful article about this story from Helen Pilinovsky, here.)
The art is "Donkeyskin" by Terri Windling.
