Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teacher
Nothing is happening here.
It’s like Rapunzel’s tower – only if Rapunzel had 3 kids up there with her.
We are missing travel especially
We all want out of this house, out of this town –
Our last travel was in March.
We drove to Georgia, with a few extra Clorox wipes for the cabin.
and drove back with official word that school was remote,
and unofficial word that if we saw toilet paper at a store on the drive back to Pennsylvania,
we should buy it.
March.
March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
10 months.
No wonder I’m thinking about Rapunzel in her tower.
“Nothing is happening here.”
She might have said
Or maybe her witch said it.
Does Rapunzel’s witch have a name?
At this point the actual fairy tales, fractured fairy tales
villain-side fairy tales
and Into the Woods
All run together.
Rapunzel’s witch was not really stuck in the tower, right?
She came and went.
No. No. I’m not actually jealous of the witch!
I’ve always felt bad for her –
An aging woman, desperate for love and youth
Misunderstood
But, I mean, she came and went as she pleased, right?
She used her power to trap Rapunzel
She was a predator.
An aging, desperate predator.
I wonder if she would have stayed -quarantined in the tower with Rapunzel
If there were covid 19 at the bottom
But Rapunzel?
She was stuck.
March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
10 months.
No wonder I’m thinking about Rapunzel in her tower.
On a Thought 
It is a bit like Rapunzel and I think everyone has longer hair too.
My teens feel like trapped hostages quite frequently. No one is going anywhere and nothing is happening. All these months blur together now. I desperately googled “things to do with your teens right now” earlier today. The results were not exciting enough. Aside from the standard, “go for a walk” everyone is still tethered here, we all just come back. Someday, it will be different. Rapunzel does eventually get out of the tower. Keep remembering that.
Stuck in the tower-so many of us feel stuck. I know my husband and son do. I try to see a brighter side as I still juggle many balls. My husband said today that if he was not trying to sell our house in Long Island and build a new house in Virginia near our granddaughters, he really would have been in trouble during the pandemic. Trying times leave us depleted…I found it interesting the way you crafted this slice.