The Road
“I am alone,” the Scarecrow said,
“Without so much as a thought in my head. What am I to do?”
She regarded him pitifully and offered him her brain.
He pulled it from her with a piece of straw.
She winced only a little towards the end.
She told herself,
“He needed it more than I”
And tried not to cry when the words settled at her feet with nowhere else to go.
“I have never known love,” the Tin Man cried,
“Without a single beat inside. Who would lay their head upon an empty chest?”
She took his hand and offered him her heart.
He made her cut it out herself with his best axe.
She could barely lift it.
She told herself,
“He'll treasure it more than I did”
And tried to ignore the sound of that old familiar rhythm ringing from him like a bell.
“I am afraid,” the Lion told,
“My valour lost, my mettle cold. Who will follow a timorous king?”
She kissed his brow and offered him her courage
And did not fight him when he snatched it from her hungrily.
He made her kneel.
She told herself,
“It is of more use to him than it could ever be to me”
And found the fear it left behind did not trouble her.
“I cannot fly,” the Monkey wept,
“My brothers left me as a I slept. How will I search the skies?”
She sat beside him and offered him her hope.
He broke its neck, tearing off its wings with his teeth.
She stitched them on with a strand of her hair.
She told herself,
“I have no cause to fly”
But put the carcass gently in her pocket when he wasn't looking.
“I cannot walk,” Tik-Tok despaired,
“Without my key I’m quite impaired. Whatever can be done?”
She smiled into his copper eyes and offered him her legs.
If he was moved by her screams he gave no sign.
She only asked he leave the shoes.
She told herself,
“I was tired of walking this road in any case”
And quietly counted out the soft steps of her receding feet.
“I have no hands,” the Gump exclaimed,
“I cannot work. I am ashamed. What is man without the means to earn his pride?”
She offered him her hand but he insisted on them both.
He took the second from her with little bother.
She did not even bleed.
She told herself,
“He will use those hands for glorious ends”
And tried not to feel his threadbare flank upon her palms.
“My powers are not limitless” the wizard confessed,
“With the secret of life I have not been blessed. How will I protect my people?”
Wordlessly she offered him her womb.
Ripping it from her quickly he left an emerald in its place and said she would not feel the difference.
She told herself,
“With this gift he will give life to an entire city”
And rocked herself gently to the soft hum of a half-forgotten lullaby.
“My toll is heaviest,” the road called gently,
“And yet as I have watched intently, you have left nothing for me.”
She offered him her sorrow but he was unmoved.
She offered him her pain but he did not want it.
She offered him her silence but he declined.
She protested,
“But I am everywhere, in all of them, in everything. I am not diminished.”
“No,” answered the road, “there was only ever you and I.”
“But all I did was follow you.”
The road did not reply.
