Asleep, dreaming of her tower,
The tower where she fell in hopes,
Of reviving the dream that was,
The promise kept in her crown,
The crown she left behind to go find her prince.

How many lifetimes ago did it occur?
How many times did she dream of falling,
Of doing things differently,
Of taking off her crown,
Of running, running, running,
Chasing after her departed ghost,
Or trying to forget.

How many forms did she take on,
To find herself within herself within herself?
To dream it all again,
To find those trees,
To run with the wind,
To yell after the moon,
To give up her wings,
To give up her memory,
To lose herself in the ocean, in the sky, in the night,
In someone else’s fantasy.

To begin again,
Another night, another dream, another wish,
Until the day when wishes were done,
And every fall,
From tower,
From running,
Into the woods,
Into the water,
Across the ocean,
Across time and space,
Into the never never of what-if,
When everything that was,
And everything that would be,
Was equal in length,
She finally had herself to lean on.

Who was she now? What was she now?
She was human, out of the fairy tale,
Every story, every adventure,
Everything happened for a reason,
All the nightmares, the failings, and fallings,
She was stronger now, she could make up her own mind,
And when least expected,
When she wasn’t even looking,
A knight appears.

This knight, unlike other hero’s, was not going to save her,
And unlike other hero’s he was not god-like, fabricated, or unattainable,
He was real, she did not have to chase the vapor,
Or dream of the many instances of falling short of what was expected,
He did not want to keep her in a high tower,
Or make her into his own creation,
He did not have the pretty poetic words,
To keep her guessing,
Or the desperate need for redemption from her,
He was human, just like her,
When she reached out to him,
He did not fade or walk away,
And her hands always found something solid,
Something warm, something true.

In this she finds the fairy tales are lacking,
Life is not perfect,
Hero’s are not perfect,
Real hero’s make mistakes and learn from them,
Real hero’s can admit when they are wrong and apologize,
Real hero’s don’t look for fame and glory,
Real hero’s are making a difference behind the scenes,
They are modest, believe themselves to be undeserving at times,
And wield the power of their convictions.

In this she finds respect for him and not the pity she felt so often in her dreams,
For those that could never be reached,
In this she knows she can believe,
In this she is sure that neither of them have “found” but realized,
That she is no princess and he is no prince,
But in her eyes, the heart that he has, the person he is,
In all the imperfect perfection,
He is greater than any of the story books,
He is something she can stand beside,
He has surpassed every fantasy by just being himself,
Faithful and True,
He does not think himself the knight that he is,
But just an honest person doing his job,
And for this she loves him above all,
For this he has won her heart,
For this he gets the keys to her kingdom,
And it surprises her….
How something she always thought so complicated,
So unreachable…
Was so very simple,
It only took stepping out of the fairy tale to touch a real person,
To change her perspective.