Plaid Dresses, Rainbow Hearts

She drew rainbow hearts across rain-soaked pavement
Hoping they wouldn't get washed away.
But each time the second half was drawn
The rainclouds would come out to play

She believed in a world of fearies
Sat for hours hanging paper hearts
Not on her sleeve but on her wall
Just to see them torn, bound to fall

She laughed at the horror movies
Shuddered at the mention of the grim reaper's name
She cut just deep enough
To forget how close to her skin her mother held the flame

She ironed her hair
Or left it a curly mess
She danced in the rain
And wore jeans under her dress

With sharpie ink
She'd line scarves
And to her skin went a blade
Trying to forget with each letter she'd carve

She smiled at the smell
Of wet leaves on an autumn day
She fronted a carefree life
Of wishing her problems away

She forgot the stories
Her grandfather told
She remembered the nightmares
In which her fears would unfold

She closed her eyes
At the sound of an infant's wail
She tried to drown out thoughts
With no avail

She fed dandelions to the river
Running near the old trail
She fell with no one to catch her
She'd fight but in the end she'd fail

She sat in a window seat
Garnished with fallen roses turned pale
She waited for someone to keep her heart safe
But then she might as well have auctioned it for sale

She hoped for losses one too many
She cried for a child that found the wrong penny
She sighed at the sun and spun circles in the rain
She lived her life a day more but only in vain

She waited and the rainclouds came one day
And she learned too quickly that nothing good can stay
The raindrops fell, so tired of childish play
And in her make-believe world of fearies, her heart was left to decay