the girl with the ribbons

ladies and gentlemen, the lights are on!

the curtains have parted, the fright has gone.

i've appeared with a smile, and girls and boys:

prepare to dance at the sound of my voice.​

​

lipsticks and eyeliners, gloves and dresses;

i brew my potion, enchant the masses,

and cast the spells of conversion betwixt

a victim once and a villain the next.

​​

i laughed and cried as if i were possessed;

onstage, the girl with the ribbons was dead.

i donned a new name, i dwelled as a trope,

in a world beyond the bounds of my own.

​

​the act is over. i'm left with a dream,

chasing the art of some thing i can't be:

the crest of my youth, i loved you and then--

i won't find a thing quite like this again.