"I don't want them to take away my demons, I am scared they will take my angels too"

(Rainer Marie Rilke on Therapy)

Sallow-skinned with large pale watery eyes

Such a translucent child her blue blood shows

I swear the whole world can see her fragile life

Pulsing through her veins

Hardly enough skin to separate her

From the world around

Her enormous consciousness includes whole worlds

Television springs such tears

A paternal scolding could never bring

***

A frail and beautiful life she is

She will need fierce angels to watch over her

She will learn to push the world away

Separate, distinct, with a façade of arrogance

She will learn the human art:

Of turning papery skin into the toughest of hides

Of hiding a fiercely emotional heart

Under layers of indifference

***

One day she will come to me, wondering

How it was so easy to lose all she held dear

Why it is so hard to regain her innocence

Without losing the distance she needs

One day she will come to me

With child's eyes still, that say:

"Look what the world's done to me"

***

I wouldn't have it any other way

So many thick-skinned thick-skulled people

Are the cause of her pain

I'm so glad she can't become

The thing she has always hated

***

Seeking a balance

She will learn to tread carefully

Nurturing her emerging wisdom

Holding back just enough

So her precious understanding

Is not stolen by the world

***

She will then learn her thickened skin

Kept her blue blood flowing,

And so kept mine