birthday fairytales

As a little girl, my rational mind tried to believe in fairy tales. It would have been so much more convenient to buy into the popular delusion.

Rapunzel, Princess and the Pea and those pesky beanstalks. I was way too literal for these evocations.

Don’t let my age fool you,

lull you into a false sense of complacency.

I will never again say

‘when I was your age’ only

to see the shade pulled over your attention.

My vision

has become sharper than ever, my understanding more keen, but you don’t hear me

calling like the wind buzzing through the tall reeds.

You are too busy flicking the gnats of the internet.

Sitting here beside you,  I

collapse like a swollen fruit,

sedimentary anger

metamorphosized into stone on my breast.