Rapunzel and the Deep Blue Sea

What adventures do you have for me today

Asked the girl

To the books

In her tower on a hill

Each spine shivered

They sang through her fingertips

Pick me!

My story tell of ships that groan

the salt in your hair and the sun on your cheek

I’ll tell you about the stars on the prairie sky

And the dogs that howl and hunt

I’m all about the ladies and how they dance

How they stroll through gardens and read and love

And dream dreams bigger than their village can hold

The ocean is the perfect place to be today,

Thought she

And as the breeze caught her curtains in a delicate dance

Rapunzel swore she could smell the salt

Just as the first page fell open

Just as the sea washed over her mind

Just as she sank lower in her covers and smiled

“Rapunzel!”

So startling was the foreign sound

In a land that should have been only waves and gulls

That she jumped straight out of bed

The offending noise came from far far down

The very bottom of her tall tower

There stood a boy

so handsome he must have been a prince

A jeweled necklace in his hand and praise on his lips

“Franz, we’ve talked about this,

I am not trapped.

I am not unhappy.

I am not lonely.

I am just alone.

And that’s the way I want it to be.”

And with a slam that echoed finality,

Rapunzel closed her window

And returned to the pages that called her