When I still danced with brooms

You remind me

of a long-lost life I lived

of fairy tales and tea parties

and toy cars and trucks and planes

i danced with brooms

and sang unearthly tunes

and waltzed through every room

i loved myself for who I was

and wore the clothes I wanted

i danced and sang for talent shows

where plastic stickers were the prizes

i ate the foods I wanted to

not scared i’d not be pretty

i made good friends who played with me

and laughed with me at jokes

i had dreams to be an astronaut or

to dance in tutus on a stage

to sing endlessly in broadways shows

or to save people with the law

i played hide and seek and tag

the last one it’s a rotten egg

eenie meanie miney mo

and other games like so

i listened to my Grammy read

thinking she was like the heroes

and my favorite books were short and sweet

so the endings would be closer

But looking now nostalgically

I see what I had not.

I would not always live in fairy tales

or drink decaffeinated tea,

nor would I always drive toy cars and trucks

or fly ’round in imaginary planes.

I would not always dance with brooms

nor waltz and sing as much.

I would not always love myself

and would not always try.

I would not dance for talent shows;

I’d need a different prize.

I would not eat the foods I wanted

just foods that kept me slim.

I would have few friends,

and those I’d have share different views

which lead fights to horrid ends.

I would not always want to be an astronaut

nor a dancer on a stage.

I would not always want to act or save,

to be dillusioned by the power.

I would not always play those games.

no time for hide and seek or tag.

I would not always see my Grammy

as a hero without flaws,

nor would she always read to me

our hobbies have since changed.

Not always would my favorite books

be short and sweet and good.

And now I look for longer books

and cry when they are done

because the end that looks so far away,

will come more close each day.

So when I dance with brooms in dreams,

or sing and waltz through halls,

I think of you doing all these things

and I pray your youth lives long.