I don't know how they found me.

I'm not sure I want to be found.

My mother taught me to stay away

From people from inside the town.

 

A girl my age I've never seen

And a man she clearly loves

Came to tell me my mother is dead

As quiet and nervous as doves.

 

I try to feel remorse

Or the normal feelings of grief.

But I hardly knew my mother;

And she didn't care about me.

 

All I recall from my 18 years

Is that mother left me alone.

She disappeared for weeks and months,

As if she had a second home.

 

The mirror tells me we look alike.

Black curls and sharp grey eyes.

But similarities linger there;

My gentle heart wears a disguise.

 

The girl is different - golden hair

Winds up around her feet.

I don't know what to make of her

Or the man with the look of a thief.

 

She gazes about as though she's spent

Her days in a single room.

She says my mother was hers as well

If what she's learned is true.

 

Her tale unfolds quite slowly

It's difficult to grasp,

But my mother's disappearances

Make so much sense I gasp.

 

The thing I remember most clearly

Is how she never aged.

When wrinkles showed she left me

And returned all young and gay.

 

Rapunzel tells me of her hair

And it all comes clear to me.

But I'm not agast at my mother's heart

Or her second life, hidden from me.

 

Flesh and blood meant nothing

To a woman heartless and cold.

All her effort was on herself.

Her means: a daughter of gold.

 

Several things are clear to this girl

As they now are clear to me.

Gothel traveled from Rapunzel's tower

In part to come and tend me.

 

The differences nearly end there;

We were treated nearly the same.

We both lost a happy childhood;

Embittered by Gothel's name.

 

Two daughters, both a secret.

One real and one a fake.

Two young women, yet to taste the world;

The truth revealed nearly too late.

 

I was the useless daughter;

She could gain nothing from me.

Rapunzel was her precious flower;

I, just part of the family tree.

 

She's off to her kingdom now

She gets married within the year.

A place in the palace she offered me,

But I think I'll stay out here.

 

She has her happy ending;

She and Eugene are set.

And I, Raven, can finally start

My own life, with no regret.