No Hands - Jill Freeman

Oh gentle stranger hear my plea

Before you set your dogs on me

I stole your fruit I must confess

Your lovely tree has one pear less

Last night an angel led me here

She helped me eat one golden pear

For as you see, before you stands

A starving girl who has no hands

I have no hands to make my way

To feed myself from day to day

I have no hands with which to fight

For what is mine

For what is right

Inside me lives a haunted man

He came one day and cut off my hands

And now he dwells within my breast

He vows that I shall never rest

Each morning as I wake at dawn

He lists the things that I’ve done wrong

And though I strive from light till dark

I never seem to make a mark

Oh God, to hold a hand in mine

Watch the fingers intertwine

To feel with my own fingertips

The softness of my lover’s lips…

To dig my hands into the mud

To prick my thumb and taste the blood

One day, I swear, upon your lands

I’ll grow a pair of brand new hands

(Based on The Handless Maiden — Brother’s Grimm)