Echo (Poetry)

There was a girl — a lonely girl
who lived inside her dreams
she wished a castle with high walls
where constant starlight gleams
and velvet cloud-free skies stretch fine —
a private world built by design.

She mapped a fiction from those thoughts
her inner eye saw true
the contours of that sleeping land
she nightly wandered through —
the forest’s warm pine-needled sheet
grown comforting beneath her feet.

It held her safe — this secret place
removed from cold day’s harm
the weightless shadows wrapped her round
and silence kept its charm
her spirit sang a freedom song
allowing hope to string along...

It seemed enough — a small escape
to fantasies within
’til other elements broke through
and wore the magic thin —
reality’s destructive witch
tore down her castle brick by brick.

Smug demons togged in glo-white coats
devoured her vision whole
fixed her full of pills instead
reprogrammed mind and soul
all in the cause of mental health.

Now she’s an echo of herself.