Saturday 18 October 2008

Rapunzel

Here she lies, after years of isolation, she finally dies.
Her golden hair neatly braided and coiled alongside her.

An unfortunate twist of fate as a child, sold to a witch for some lettuce. Did her parents not care at all? She often wondered, as she stared out her tower, if her parents ever wept over the mistake they had made, if they had ever wondered how she was doing, if they ever imagined the colour of her hair or eyes. If they even allowed themselves to think of her.

The adoptive mother was crazy, locked her in a tower "away from all the world's evil", she didn't realize she was ruining Rapunzel, taking her away from the very things she needed, and chaining her to brick walls high above society. She didn't want to become part of a fairytale told to little children; she wanted to dwell among them.
There was some happiness, though, there was the prince. Handsome, he was. But all good men die a good death; He was stabbed to a pulp by the witch, he was considered one of the world's evils. He was her only guest aside from the witch, but after some time, the witch stopped visiting, too. Then she had no one. Rapunzel learned to feed off the birds hovering around her tower, learned to enjoy them raw: Blood, guts and all.

Eventually, she aged. Her hair withered but remained golden, always golden. Her skin cracked, yellowed like paper, her teeth dropped out, one by one, and the colour of her eyes faded, pigment by pigment.

Here she lies, Rapunzel, a forgotten maiden who lived high above society, away from the world's evil.

5 comments:

your favourite sinner. said...

so much for fairytales, huh?
you cynical little person you.

still, it's great =)
honestly.

Joanna said...

:) thanks mon

Anonymous said...

yet another bucket of sunshine from jo :P
haha but yeah, great stuff. hella visual.
some life lessons in it though eh? the sheltering of a person from the world inevitably leading to tragedy... i guess thats some incentive to get out there and experience this Green earth. only live once. sitting and watching just simply isnt enough.
am i right, joanna ;) hahaha

Joanna said...

deep comment.
you totally analysed my story and got its meaning [when I didnt even know the value that lay buried beneath it!]

Joanna said...

peer pressure aint cool, skinny boy!
SO QUIT IT! i shall be there, laughing at you idiots. OKAY? be happy :)