Child Naming Flowers

[aliquisa]

The year after pretending to be somebody’s mother
I became an Elf
and stayed that way for quite some time.

My friends were human, when I had them.

Mother’s rose garden,
off limits, of course,
was fair game
and the deep stream behind the field
had jewels along the bottom;

I couldn’t swim.

Willow trees had faces which wept
and I spoke to them;
I thought they were sad from lack of company
and men who tried to cut them.
I sat in grass, their arms draped around me, and we talked
and I was never lonely.

I sang at night, in the dark.
By the light of streetlights I sang
and waited for my real family to find me.