Mine is a story
Not many people know
It’s a story that can’t be told
Or ever shown on screen
It’s a story that can’t be written
Until someone sets me free
The day I fell in love
I learned what happiness was
She was a little munchkin maid
And I was a feller of trees
I had lost my parents
As many men do
I needed a new reason to live
And she was the only one for me
I planned to make a life for us
I wanted the very best things
She asked me to build a house for us
And I went to work that same day
My betrothed lived with an old hag
Who scorned me bitterly
Since I would take her servant away
She asked a witch to get rid of me
A powerful witch indeed
The witch watched me through woods
She knew my trade too well
She devised a hellish demise for me
And bewitched my woodsman’s axe
The axe felt different in my hands
At first I didn’t know why
Then the blade turned on me
And cut my left leg clean
The blood, oh blood flowed freely
My life was all but gone
But the thought of love pulled me back
And I found someone who could help
He was a tinsmith and he had an idea
He fixed a new leg for me
I got back to work but didn’t know
The witched continued to watch me
My leg worked fine and my grip was sure
I continued with my work
But in a moment the blade turned once more
And cut my right leg clean
The scream, oh my scream echoed out
I couldn’t believe my eyes
For I knew this was no accident
And someone wanted me to die
I found my tinsmith friend again
He fixed a new leg for me
I went back to work but before I finished
The axe cut my left arm clean
The pain, oh the pain deep and searing
And more blood than before
My heart was nearly drained dry
But the tinsmith saved me once more
The tin arm was stronger
The grip was firmer
I worked faster than before
But the axe wasn’t finished with me
And it cut my right arm clean
The misery, the woe of losing every limb
I thought there could be nothing worse
But the munchkin girl still loved me
Despite the witch’s curse
The witch knew this and did not relent
Oh no she would never quit
But I wouldn’t stop till my work was done
So she made the axe take my head
My head, my head I thought I was dead
But my heart kept on ticking
I could feel my guardian near me then
And the tinsmith saved me once again
Legs, arms, and a head made of tin
What could the witch do to me then?
Even she puzzled at my transformation
But then she knew what it would take
To kill my determination
The enchanted blade turned toward my chest
And drove itself right through me
It broke my body in two parts
And dashed my heart to bits
I watched the tinsmith through my tin eyes
As he made a new torso for me
My friend and hero saved me again
But he neglected to replace the most important part
My heart, oh my heart
The most important part
Instead there was emptiness
And my love was long forgotten
The witched rejoiced
And claimed her prize from the hag
My maiden waited patiently
And never heard from me again
No love, no joy
Just work work work
No house, no ring
Just chop chop chop
I stood in the woods
Shining in the sun
Admiring my brightness
Thinking “No one can hurt me!”
As long as I remembered to oil my joints
I could work all day and all night
But one day I forgot and was caught in a storm
Now I’m frozen in place like a sundial
By my calculations I’ve been here for a year
Staring at the bark of this tree
Thinking of what could have been
My axe is raised high toward a sky
That forgot I ever existed
I’m frozen in the grove
Stuck as if in sap
Standing like a statue
Invisible to the passerby
With only trees for company
But even they are freer than me
For they’re allowed to fall and die
No such privilege is afforded to one such as I
Last night I dreamed of a girl in gingham blue
Flying to my land in a small farm house
She landed right on top of that cursed witch
And followed a path of yellow bricks
She heard my cry in the woods
And ran for my oil can
She freed me from my statue stance
And took me to a magic man
Who granted me a heart
The dream was so real it awoke my joy
It stirred my soul and I would have cried
If I could just remember where tears came from
And had a heart to pump them through my eyes
How I miss my heart
And my true happiness
Now I wait for the girl
In the blue gingham dress
