My children will have a childhood.
I will make sure of it.
They will swim in ponds littered with Lilly pads
Dive down to muddy depths like fearless fish.
Sink tiny toes into slick black mud.
They will thrash strong tanned legs
Toward the gleaming surface above.
And **** deep breaths of country air.

They will slumber beneath the stars
To the sounds of bullfrogs and singing crickets
And the frenzy of flickering fairies of the night.
They will use glass wands of glitter
Just as a magician might
To hammer
All at once the warm dry earth
Sending grasshoppers springing
In startled unison-
Like magic
To escape the alien vibrations.

They will run barefoot through fields.
Drag behind them a ******* beast named
Ballou or Bear- or something like it.
He who leaps on four legs
And licks with pink tongue.

They will dance to songs
They do not understand.
And fashion forts from fallen brushwood.
They will swing from high up branches
Only climbers of trees can reach.

They will discover an island of trees
Some sweltering summer day
As they wade through waist high
Green grass that breathes along
With the erratic waving of the wind.
They will claim it as their own.
They will name it Sail Away or- something like it.
And ***** a flapping flag of dishtowel and twig.

They will pull from backpacks
Granola bars and beef jerky
And gulp water from their base camp.
And return only when it is too dark
And they are too weary
To embark on any more adventures.
My children will have a childhood.
They will have one because I did.

They're empty without meaning
I'm dry like the dead sea
A dessert hard to see
It's a hallucination you were only in my imagination
No feelings, dying memories,
I can't believe in nothing, no one
I lost trust not confidence
I'm awaken ready to face
Anything and everything
Don't wait on me
My dreams are underconstruction
A written destruction

She prepares her kit
To turn into someone else
She's done this for years
Not knowing how to be herself

She smears her lips
With a bright bold Mac
Drawing an artificial smile
Hoping she wont crack

She grabs her eyeliner
And traces her eyes
As strokes of mascara
Send lashes toward the sky

She dips herself in powder
And draws two circles for blush
She irons her natural hair
With every bristle and brush

With this new mask on
She could now face the world
Yet I still wonder
Will I ever meet the real side of this girl?