Chopped

Sometimes the way to get what you wanted is to chop off what you always held onto as though your life depended on it. (My interpretation of the moral of Tangled.)

The magic, healing hair
people coveted, craved,
would capture Rapunzel
for should she ever leave
the protection of the tower
spawned her abduction,
her isolation, her lack of love,
held her captive to the lies.

The magic, healing hair
her captor coveted, craved,
would kill for —
she’d no use for
but to save what she loved
and couldn’t keep.
Yet chopped off,
deprived of value, the loss
granted wishes to all she’d met
and healed her world.