Yellow Brick

I. Burdens of the Tin Man

These oxidizing enemies;

Rain and snow and morning dew

Threaten him with eons of frozen silence

A constant call to oil

A viscous necessity

Leaves him little autonomy

He is an artificial entity

He can no more feel love

Then can a stone in the field

His heart is merely a fabrication of gears and cogs

A mechanized life engine lacking only blood

No tears fall on his creaking sockets

No lust burns inside him

His bygone desires are now lost

To memories foggy with rust

Unlike the puppet of stories

He will always be a cold metal thing

A tick-tock woodsman

Heavy are his burdens.

II. Leonine Pride

He growls and parades,

His head high in arrogance,

An air of hubris.

Nothing of the coward is

Revealed in his fearsome display.

His unbound arm strikes;

Brave single limbed combat eliciting

Fear from ignorant travelers.

He claims kingship over the woods

Living unchallenged.

The scolding is one he cannot bear.

Warbling growls catch in his throat,

Tears fill his stately brown eyes

His courage broken by a waif.

This false forest bully,

More coward than king,

Seeks an answer in courage.

III. In Fear of Crows

Wits make not the man,

The man makes his wits.

He follows a yellow road into the unknown,

Reluctant and wary.

He needs no brain to feel fear.

But in her presence his doubt falls away.

He follows this friend untested

This woman-child of the other world,

To a place of promises fulfilled.

Inside a gemstone palace,

A furtive wizard’s abode,

Lie answers for all.

Three friends he leads,

Through battalions of crows

And the threat of fire.

He needs no brain

To feel compassion

And love.

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