Once there was a princess,
Locked within a tower
Far older than the common heroine,
Past the flush of youth and farther
She spent her days sat against the wall,
The window another reminder of her capture
And too great the allure of a fall to befell her
A vial sat beside her bed, an aid for sleep so enticing,
Spent hours pacing, contemplating the label,
Still she was unable
Her voice her only tonic in the tower
Ill one day and rasping, flushed and crawling tipped it
To lips and throat gasping,
Took her songs whole

Now many years mute and crying,
Heard a man beneath the tower climbing,
But she had no will to go,
And the prince had found his princess too old.