Beyond Tower Walls

She threw you from the Tower

and you tumbled 

and screamed as the thorns pierced your eyes.

It hurt me to watch you fall, 

hurt me more

to be banished a fortnight's journey 

from my prison of eighteen years

and from you.

When I reached the Tower

I, weeping, 

followed your trail of bloody tears

and remembered

the sweet young boy

with the beautiful voice 

and countless stories

and brilliant smiles

and his promises of endless tomorrows. 

A person can change in a day

a week

a month 

and while something grew in me, 

something broke in you. 

When my tears restored sight to your eyes, 

you spat in mine, calling me  

Witch

Deceiver 

and you wouldn't look at me. 

And now we travel to your kingdom, for,

despite your faults, 

you are a man of your word. 

But I understand something now. 

I love who you were

but not who you are. 

I'll always be thankful

for my freedom from the Tower

and from my timid, frightened girlhood, 

but I can no longer live 

with your bitterness and spite. 

It was not I who made you blind, 

but a witch who long ago fled.

And now you, in your anger, 

          blind yourself. 

I won't spend another moment

with someone who can only see

what once could have been--

I have always yearned

for the future ahead, and now, thanks to you, 

I can find it. 

If you ever remember 

the young boy who loved a girl, 

you can come looking for me.

But be warned--

                          I won't be waiting. 

--Rapunzel