I have seen it all, you can say.
All the castles, the knights, the princes,
and the dragon who coils his thick scales
in a glint of emerald as the great beast
tangos with a softly fading night.

I have dived into the pages of a storybook
and swum with mermaids. I have
flicked my peach-colored tail,
kissed a dolphin, played hand games
with a thirteen-legged octopus,
whose laugh sounded like my
mother's voice.

I have had eternal friends---
breathed secrets to fairies, watched them
twinkle, pink fireflies in a meadow.
I have danced with a sycamore,
strong, tough arms that wave
to the wind, and support my weight.

Now all I can dream is
the way the gray light fragments
its way through my shades,
beams which sag and drop.
I wake up with the image
of broken bodies: bones
snapped and aging among
leaves of ash, and now I
wake up coughing and sputtering,
my mind screaming for
one more happily ever after.