Riding Rapunzel

One day a beautiful woman bolted out

of bewildering love,

exited the wider circumference

of her loneliness,

and threw down her golden hair

over her dove-white breasts

for men to climb for trysts.

She galloped into their lives

like the trumpet’s shocking blare

at the starting gate,

built a small fire

in each of their hearts

until one day she broke her stride,

cantered upon the thin ice

of an early thaw of marriage,

and drowned herself in a blue tower –

the mistress of sad, fairy-tale luck.

“Riding Rapunzel” was originally published in Pearl, 1993.