Once upon a time,

in a tower- tall, far and kept away

lived Rapunzel,

a secret princess in her day

 

Her father, the King

made a mistake he could not take back

and so he locked away his daughter, Rapunzel

because she was Black.

 

Rapunzel's skin was unfixable

Her hair, untameable

The king sent the little short-haired black girl

off to the tower-- unsaveable.

 

Years and years alone

Rapunzel only had her hair to tend

The more it grew, she noticed it held magical gifts

It could move, protect and mend

 

Rapunzel and her ringlets danced in circles 

until everything around became blurred

Other nights they cried together

wondering if anyone cared where they were

 

By the time she was 18

Her hair had grown seventy feet long

Rapunzel and her thick, winding curls 

would prove to be strong.

 

One day, 

Rapunzel cast down her hair

and was amazed to see that the ground

and the ends of her hair lay there

 

She cried and she cheered,

"Now I can finally escape this misery!"

It never occured to the King nor to Rapunzel:

Her coarse, curly hair is what would set her free.

 

Upon the following morning,

Rapunzel chopped her tresses

in order to create a ladder

that would guide her out of her oppression

 

In she went a short-haired girl

Out she came a short-haired woman

Black feet, bare and reconnected with soil

and a raging heart drumming beneath her bosom

 

She made her way

to the King's home

where everyone looked foreign

but in fact some of them were her own

 

"Who is this Negro?!"

the king blurted with a dumb tilt of his head

"I am the princess. My name is Rapunzel."

His daughter said.

 

You could hear the King's heart drop

as he stared at someone he deemed tragic

What he did not know, however,

was that this Black girl was Magic.