Falling

"It's all lies" they whisper around her
"you made it up, it's not real"

The land she loved, the friends she made,
all fake? all false?
She wonders how this could be--

the cat, the rabbit, the mouse, the crazy man--
she loved them all, though where she went
was scary, sometimes.

She couldn't believe it, yet she did;
until it was no longer safe for her,
until she was near death.

Then she crumpled the deck,
she played the checkmate move,
and she fell out.

Into the real world,
and, worst of all,
she grew up. Now she can't
go back.

But she knows that it was real,
she knows and she believes.

(c) November 2011