I slowly noticed the motions floating under the bed
Where I hoped for a moment it was all in my head.
My eyes focused on the faces staring back at me; dead.
These dolls and their apathy, left me panicked, I fled.
Dysfunctional beings, inanimate objects that's talked
When the cord was pulled or button mashed, us kids were at fault.
Just a kiss, I was taught, could make a prince from a frog,
And a cupboard could make a tiny Indian stand up and walk.
It was a magical world that I yearned to be apart of
But it was a never ending story that I wasn't in charge of.
I wanted to roar with the lions on top of pride rock,
Or build webs with Charlotte in the barn with livestock.
But it wasn't to be, I was only human of course,
And even with imagination, reality was enforced.
Years passed and I prematurely grew from my innocence
And I hated the world for what it was, the hatred and wickedness.
The death and the sicknesses that claimed so many I loved,
Forced me to revert to my childhood where life could be numbed.
The faceless mothers in cartoons were suddenly mine,
Because the memory of my own had faded and left me here blind.
I tried to grow up, I nearly faltered as a father
But I pushed through the chaos to reach out to my daughter.
Now I lay with her next to me while her toys litter the floor,
And remind myself that she's the reason that I'm living here for.
Every story that I read her ends with a happily ever after,
Now I sleep with an open book, so I never have to end the chapter.