This is a song I wrote in '99


The Yorkshire Post's Christmas Appeal is for shoeboxes filled with small gifts, for children in Romania. Some of the children are living in rubbish dumps, some need hospice care, but can only be admitted when they are considered to have less than 5 months to live.

SHOEBOX CINDERELLA

Shoebox Cinderella, said the headline, and it brought an image straight into my mind
Of lonely Cinderella in the ashes, with her ugly sisters, jealous and unkind.
But this Cinderella's in a war-torn country, in a hospice, living out her little time.
No glass slippers for her feet, just a shoebox full of treats,
Grim reality's no happy pantomime.

There's a child among the ashes; can you bring a little smile
To her life of desperation – lift her spirits for a while?
As the clock ticks on to midnight there will be no magic spell,
And there'll be no happy ending, just the tolling of a bell.

CHORUS

She's a shoebox Cinderella, but this is no pantomime.
And there'll be no transformation, for she's running out of time.

In her rags amidst the squalor, cold and hungry, she's alone.
Will you lift the deadly pallor, do you have a heart of stone?
Fill that box with things to cherish, though so little, though so late,
In a life that is so hellish, how can you ignore her fate.

CHORUS

Though a shoebox full of treasures, just to show that someone cares,
Seems so pointless, seems so futile, in a life of such despair.
What can I do?, is it worth it?, will it help?, can I be sure?
Do the little that you can do; yes, then do a little more.

CHORUS