Cinderella

Lyrics

[Intro]
(a minor-key music-box waltz, harpsichord and brushed drums)

[Verse 1]
They buried my mother and they salted the ground,
gave me cinders for a bed and a name that sounds like "down."
But I planted a hazel branch and I watered it with grief,
and a little white bird came down to answer my belief.

[Chorus]
Cinderella, in the ashes, learning what the ashes teach —
that the ones who keep you kneeling keep the ballroom out of reach.
So shake the tree, shake the tree, let the silver gowns fall down —
the birds remember kindness, and the birds remember the crown.

[Verse 2]
Three nights I danced in starlight and three nights I slipped away,
left a slipper on the staircase for the prince to read like prey.
The sisters took a blade to their own heel and their own toe —
"the shoe fits if you make it," said the mother. But the birds said no.

[Bridge]
(the music-box slows, a warning)
"Roo-coo — look, there's blood in the shoe" —
the doves don't lie, and the doves see through.
The fear you learn in the ashes is the fear that keeps you alive:
the amygdala remembers who let you starve to survive.

[Chorus]
Cinderella, out of the ashes, wearing what the grave bestowed —
the ones who cut themselves to fit will limp the whole way home.
So ring the bell, ring the bell, let the true foot find the shoe —
the birds pecked out the lying eyes... and the birds came home to you.

[Outro]
(the music-box winds down)
From the hazel, from the ashes, from the grave beneath the tree...
the smallest, quietest, kneeling girl was the last one standing free.