Tin Man

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