“
“Does magic exist?” they ask with their glittered eyes
hair swishing down to slender waists
Petticoats and platforms
Feathers and lace and leathers and chain
They want me to confirm what they secretly know
Maybe prove it
so I write another story
light some fairy lights
give them cupcakes
and tell them they are beautiful
“In December I almost died”
She says
“But I graduated I composed more music I hung from a wire and danced in the air”
“Does magic exist?”
she asks
As if it is somewhere else
Some foreign place outside of us
Untouchable
And not just her standing here aglitter with youth and talent and the desire to love a lost soul
Who asks her with his eyes
Just before he leaves and breaks her heart
“Does magic exist?”
He knows the answer, the one she wants to believe in
But he can’t take the risk of knowing it is true.
“For the girls who come to me” by Francesca Lia Block.
