A young traveler arrives upon 

A town as old as time 

And at first as she enters

It all feels truly sublime 

Ears and eyes filled with fresh praise

And heart filled with joyous love 

There’s little for her to fear 

As she keeps fixed on signs above. 

 

But as time passes in the town 

She finds things are awry 

For her, it’s first apparent when

She sees some people cry

And as she continues to wander

She notices low food supply 

And then, as time goes on

She watches people die. 

 

From here, the town becomes

More peculiar and treacherous still 

As those close to her begin

To see her and speak ill 

Some, they see the color 

That has graced her skin 

Others, they see perhaps

The “unfortunate” position she’s in 

Others still, they see her thoughts 

Which fill them with chagrin 

All and all, they most dislike

All that lies within. 

 

As the years pass her by

In this dead, old, lost town

She begins to let all of this 

Turn her ideas around 

From joyous and hopeful at new travel

She is now filled with great despair 

For in an old town full of evil like this one

What good, really, is there?

 

For a time, she sulks and tries

To mold herself to them

If the people hate her so 

The problem is surely her, then

First, she changes her look

When that fails, she alters her body

And, when that’s not enough 

She addresses her greater oddity 

She changes her inner thinking 

Rewires and breaks her ever-turning mind 

So that a more conforming figure

One could never find. 

 

Now, happy ending this was not

For superficial it was indeed

The people around her praised her 

But within her, there was great need 

For to change herself for others 

And to forget why she traveled there 

It’s all simply too much for anyone 

To take alone and bear. 

 

The truth to her came after a time 

When one day she finally knew 

That she shouldn’t have changed for the town

For she was only passing through 

A traveler can mold themselves

But they can never truly belong 

Better to love and respect the people

But not become too far gone 

For, at the end of the journey

When we examine ourselves once more

If we change ourselves too much 

We’ll lose who we were before 

So heed these words, in this age old town 

Change — though positive it may sometimes be 

When a quick fix to an age old conflict 

Is a great danger to a traveler grown weary.

 

Such a town is not unique 

Nor is it a town at all 

But heed its lessons we all must do

Lest we all take a tragic fall.