This particular poem is also written for the Call it Heads or Tails Challenge, 3a.2 (tails) – write a fic with the main character looking back, and for the Freeverse Poetry Boot Camp, #018 – cracker.
4.
She travels now, and yet the food is rich
and her callouses slowly fade.
She is pampered like a princess
sometimes, all the time.
The comb, the pin in her hair,
the dress to replace her tunic
and the tunic as it burns…
She travels now, but she's better off.
She's free, first of all.
She's learning to count, and other useful skills.
One day she'll learn to read as well.
She learns to fight too; she already knows
how to cook
and she learns her job
this time, by the book.
The care of a dragon, which she's done
almost all her life, but now she does it properly:
hears his voice, sees her smile.
She's a freed slave, a traveller
but she is rich.