A poem based on the Grimm fairytale of the same name.

Stood I behind the apple tree
Doing my honest work
When to that man you promised me
For bounties of the earth

And when that man returned to claim
The prize ye had agreed
He was enraged to find me clean
Untainted by man's greed

Untainted I could not be his
My father understands
To save himself from satan's grip
He must chop off my hands

I am his child, he gave me life
I owe him all my being
So when the axe prepared to slice
I never thought of fleeing

But when I was alone that night
And blood soaked through my dressing
I wept a waterfall in fright
And asked for our Lord's blessing

So when the man returned once more
My wounds were cleansed by tears
I was no use to Satan so
He finally disappeared

Disappear did I as well
Away from my dark past
And in the forest would I dwell
A self-imposed outcast

Without my hands I could not eat
Though nature's fruits abounded
An angel raised me by me feet
Onlookers watched astounded

And when the king heard of my trials
He took me in and kept me
Walked me gently down the aisle
And promised to accept me

But when he went to fight the war
I was left all alonely
And soon enough a son I bore
My joy, my one and only

Satan soon heard of the birth
and revelled in his chance
To make a mockery of mirth
and skew our circumstance

He intercepted every message
Called the child a changeling
Requested that we both be killed
By order of the King

But loyal servants could not follow
These barbarous orders
Bid me take my child beyond
That fair environ's borders

An angel came to soothe our pains
I prayed to God each day
To give me back my hands
So I might tend to my new babe

And when the king returned to find
His wife and son had vanished
He madly searched for seven years
To seek where they'd been banished

Find them he did in an old shack
Living in isolation
And duly he did bring them back
Enraptured with elation

The devil is a mighty beast
A force beyond all others
Except a pure and fast belief
In bonds between true lovers