"Make-Believe"

Our minds are under white imagination’s hold

as frozen fingers fumble in our tries

at making onyx-branched castles,

the cold ice-guarded palaces of a child.

Names like Jeremiah and Leopold

crown kingdoms crystallized within our minds.

Our dreams, live orange flashpoints in our souls

as soot-stained grey flakes fall on lace-trimmed eyes.

Ruby fingers tear away the branches

longing for the return of a childish soul

to walk among the trees of youthful mirth.

But frost white castles melt to the lancing

fire of time burning onyx to charcoal

and grey flakes dissolve into iron-brown earth.