I apologize,

Who were you expecting?

I believe you were expecting someone afraid,

A china-doll heart, hands that are perhaps intelligent but never brave.

Changeling that I am, I think I'll let you.

Just for today.

I think I'll let you admire me when I do the simplest things,

If I'm feeling generous, I'll even let you pretend to hold onto me,

And you're welcome think it's to keep me from falling.

A glamor is always for a reason,

Is what they told me when I danced in a ring and let the years slide away from me.

If I cover myself now in the gossamer shawl of tiny beauties,

You won't be any the wiser when people begin to talk,

When they begin to tell stories of something fire-bright,

Something that sings in their blood and forces their eyes to look for miracles.

You won't know it's me until you find that you cannot sleep,

For staring at the stars.

Until you've gone out without your shoes to breathe in the perfume of violets,

And wonder if that sometime love of yours has changed her ways,

You'll probably think there's something in the water.

But one evening, you'll closee your eyes and all you'll be able to hear is the murmur of the wind in the cedars on the first day you ever really felt alive,

And, too late, you will finally see me.