Make-Believe

Writing all her poems in third person,

Looking out at the stormy sky outside—

Gray through the dusty window—

Wondering what mischief goes on

Anywhere but within.

 

Crafting phrases in

Sympathetic pen—

Imagining how

Imagining when,

Imagining faces and lives and dreams that exist

Anywhere but within.

 

Weeping for characters whose faces

She will see vaguely only in dreams—

Which are the hugs that inspire her days.

Hungrily yearning,

Hungrily turning

Page after page after page—

A pen in hand and a paper nearby should sudden inspiration

                                    Strike—

Devouring stories,

Devouring day-long friends:

Oh, brave new world that has such people in it!

Loving the magic

Anywhere but within.