i used to pick flowers and braid them into my hair
and when the wind blew, i sang
and my voice rose to the heavens

i taught myself to hope
and to dream of the impossible
and what couldn't be
became

at night I would look to the moon and smile
as i imagined myself a pair of feathered wings
and flew up to the stars
sleeping among them until dawn came

i even made a little boy of pillows and pretended he was real
so that i could have a prince charming all for my own

you came then, and with your arrival
i forgot the fragrance of flowers
and the soft voice of the wind

the moon's light dimmed and the stars faded-
became things of the past
and my little man of pillows was stored away
no longer needed

i fell in love with you and left my childhood behind
desperate to make us last forever
for eternity

i lost my love for the impossible
and hid away the dreamer within me
losing hope in fantasies and no longer believing in illusions

and it was only when you left me that I realized
the things most precious to me had been shoved aside

i found that the smell of your skin could not compare
to the sweetest of flowers
and the romantic whisperings of sweet nothings in my ear
could never replace the voice of the wind

i gazed into your eyes and they seemed dead
when set among the brilliant stars
and as I pressed my fingertips to your face
i realized that my boy of pillows had been so soft
like the downiest of feathers
and that he had always been there for me
even when you weren't

i knew all of this
yet when i tried to regain my childish hopes and dreams
i found that they-just like you-had gone
disappeared forever, smothered by the illusion of a love
that had never been real