Rapunzel Sonnets

Dreaming from my tower
In the air
Higher than the trees
Surrounding close
Wondering if men
Would find me fair
Footsteps down below
Break my repose
The mist about my window
Hinders me
From viewing
Who would enter in my court
But so few visitors I chance to see
Intent I am
On making my report
And tuning my sweet song
Towards the earth
I'll change my fate
Which left me here since birth
Six notes
Only had I sounded
When
The footsteps came nearer my prison wall
Trembled I
Yet sounded them again
And from what seemed the pit of earth
Heard call
A voice
Quite different
From those I had heard
Though I could count that number on one hand
My lips
Too dry to speak a single word
I wondered
Why I had not better planned
And tried in vain to step back from the sill
For something held my hair
And kept me still
I tried to scream
But sound I could not make
My frightened wit had robbed me of my speech
I thought of how my tresses
I might break
But spied the scissors
Just beyond my reach
Frantically
I fumbled through my skirts
Searching for my dagger in the fold
The same I used
For tearing linen shirts
And as I knew
Not what of me had hold
To sacrifice my braids
I raised my knife
Too late!
I now must kill to save my life
My point directed at the stranger's chin,
No time was left for severing his rope
But shall I murder him
Or let him in?
I was too stunned at what I saw
To hope for some salvation
I knew I was lost
Whichever was my choice
It mattered not
The mist had cleared
My innocence the cost
And for one endless moment
I was wrought
Of human flesh
And human cares and fears
The fantasy of fables
Read for years
A face it was
Yea, it had lips and eyes
But unlike that which greets me in the glass
In its twin orbs
I saw no less surprise
And so we stood
Two statues made of brass
I gazing in his eyes
And he in mine
As though we might have read each other's thoughts
He smiled slowly
As one
Drunk with wine
When suddenly the forest rang with shots
The hunters oft' before had come too near
And so I bid adieu
To all my fear
Hardly knowing half of what I did
But well aware the half
I knew was mad
I grasped his arms as virtue may forbid
And pulled the creature with what strength I had
Into the chamber
To the floor we fell
Then scrambled I
To my poniard retrieve
And asked him now
At death's third door
To tell
Why cam'st he hence
And bade him not deceive
For if he should be false
Despite his beauty
Though I be fooled
My dagger knew its duty
His lips then moved
But not a sound was heard
I saw them
As two petals from a rose
When finally
He was fit to say a word
I was content examining his nose
He made some mention
Of a songbird's tune
I was not listening
But o'erlooked his brow
He claimed
He would have climbed up to the moon
I wished to give him peace
But knew not how
He had not thought his rope a maiden's hair
Upon my life
I found the creature fair!
The deed explained
He begged of me my name
"Rapunzel"
I replied
"A man thou art?"
"I am"
The creature laughed
"The very same
How long hast thou been kept from life
Apart?"
I told him how
For one and twenty years
My home had been the walls
He saw around me
How no amount of pleading
Nor no tears
Have gained a visitor
Until he found me
But when I think upon it
I recall
For staring
He did not hear me at all
It seemed to me
We may as well not speak
His eyes had gone
As cloudy as the day
He asked if he might
Come again that week
And I knew
He must soon be gone away
He took my hands
And pressed them in his own
As if by doing so
He should stay longer
He told me of the world
I might have known
Vowing to return
And slay my wronger
Then promising no harm
His head he bent
And kissed my lips
Then out the sill he went
Lowering himself
As he had come
Through the mist
My creature disappeared
Riding back
To all that he was from
And all that I could never be
I feared
And yet
What raven locks fell 'round his face
What gentle eyes
As gray as seagulls wings
A voice so soft
My words cannot replace
The memory
Of a thousand lovely things
And so I'll dream again
Of arms more sweet
The dagger
I had dropped
Lies at my feet