My body shrinks at night.
With all five feet and ten inches tucked
Under the blankets.
I become just a head, mounted on a pillow-
A head trying on dreams behind its eyes,
And dreams are one size fits all.

Visions unscathed by the ravages of time
Dance along in this child's mind.
For rapturous moments, she is just the right size
To fly.
But even her wings become too burdened,
As her world
Retreats from the dawn.

My body has outgrown her now.
She rattles aimlessly around inside my adult bones,
Playing make believe and marveling
At the creature in the mirror.
She is wrapped in a long limbed lie,
And she even fools herself
From time to time.

My sleeping child-self in the dark confirms
What I could only half see in the light,
And shouts what I hear smothered
By the invading rays of day.
Whispered by the trees that raised her,
Raised her high, quietly go:

"The world is full of clutching children lost in giants' skin."