Further Up & Further In

Gentle-hearted Girl

Gentle-hearted girl,
With one foot in each world,
Tell me, does it hurt when you are pushed
Out and pulled back like the changing of the tides?
The stars here are not the ones you know,
And they extend too far for you to see,
So you return to earth in the hope someone may be waiting there
For you.

Gentle-hearted girl,
With the eyes of an ancient queen,
And the hands of a warrior,
Tell me, does it hurt to be a child,
Without your kingdom and your crown,
Thrown back down to the floor on your way out of
Paradise?

Gentle-hearted girl,
Who has seen too many battles.
In war they say, "Be brave," and you reply,
"I was brave. Once."
But there's no point in being brave
When your gentle heart
And pretty face
Are all you are good for.

Gentle-hearted girl,
With a heavy heart and light arms,
Tell me, did it hurt when they were torn away from you?
Do the ghosts of them remain
In the empty rooms you call Home,
Demanding the queen they once
Ruled beside?

Gentle-hearted girl,
Take another sip of wine, and
Tell him, did it hurt when you fell?
You look like an angel, after all,
To the eyes of men
Who have never seen Heaven,
And you begin to believe them,
Because you did fall
From grace.

Gentle-hearted girl,
With years beyond her age,
And memories too heavy for a young girl's mind,
Tell me, do you wish you had gone with them?
Given up your fears and
Jumped
Into the sea you used to play in
When you were a young queen
In a young land?
Forgotten your stubbornness, and
Believed,
Just once.
Believed,
Once more
That there may be things greater
Than this world?

Gentle-hearted girl,
You will meet again
With your family and friends,
At the end of the world
Where you so feared to tread.
And you will wonder what took you so long
When you see their open arms
And you realize that they never hated
All you had become.
And you won't be able to tell them how much you missed
All you had been
Because you will be Her again.

Gentle-hearted girl.
Gentle-hearted queen.