Clockwork Princess

Once upon a time in a kingdom crystalline

there was a king that was obsessed with time

He wanted a child who would be the same forever

So he set himself upon mechanical endeavor

 

A skeleton of melted crowns and gears he stole from clocks 

He made himself a daughter and his court a music box

Gears propelled by crystal heart, she danced precise and stately

Charged with fragile monarch, the court turned obligately 

 

Clockwork Princess had no eyes, no ears, no voice to call her own

Air whispered against polish as she spun obediently alone. 

The wind upon her rivets sent her ticking off the charts

Zephyr against her face plate made her yearn for softer parts

 

She tried to catch the feeling, leapt out of step with court

No longer keeping to the music, the wind her true consort 

Unabashed and joyful she tried to touch the sky

One step too quick she tumbled, for a second she could fly

 

Gears scattered on the floor, apparatic whine

The princess lay in pieces, crystal cracked to exposed spine

Though the King tried to rebuild her the result was amateur

Her star at court was fallen and replaced nouveau danseur

 

Hidden in a corner tower made of lesser rocks

The princess patinas behind many doors and locks

Her chassis is a coffin for what used to tick reliably

Tangled wires round her body tangled into bridalwreath

 

From high above a draft creeped in through cracks long sown

Around her toes a moat of dust rushed gently ‘cross the stone

Some tension deep within her jumped and gears began to start

Her love had come to find her and did not care about her marks