Let's Play Pretend

Let's play pretend Pretend you are the hero and I am the damsel in depression You sold me a magic future you'd crafted out of fool's gold And I fell into the shimmer A siren song in rough seas and I sang merrily we fall What adventure novels did I neglect While chasing a happily ever after lie Though you were a tragedy in your own right You were a rum drunk pirate On a pain soaked ship And I haven't the heart to call you a villan I should have known when you said you didn't read much That you'd be the chapter I wish I could tear out page by page And burn like witchcraft Turn your memory to smoke and ash The boy who would not grow up And the girl who could not make him I forced you to see your reflection though Not in a rippled tide pool But exactly as it was And you could not hide from yourself then Let's pretend I'm the fairy godmother and I'll grant you this one year to the midnight Tell me Did you think I'd ever find the courage to leave? Let's pretend You never said the things you did And I never cried behind a steering wheel Trapped screaming prayers to St. Anthony To find the me I lost chasing you Let's pretend I didn't instead find silver spoons in snowboard boots Or empty liquor bottles in full laundry baskets Or the patience before I lost it and transformed as though by dark magic into someone spiteful Let's pretend I never wanted to make you hurt The way you made me hurt And let's pretend I never tried. Let's pretend That water is not vodka And that I am not as stupid as you made me feel Let's pretend Like the time you shoved me into the wall was the only time you were a rough sea to me and it was only because you were weather worn Let's pretend I was in love with you and not the role you wrote for yourself before I found out your true character Let's pretend We aren't as complicated as we are And in my story you can be a sick evil pirate And in your story I can be a vile gypsy witch And in our story we are just sad, frustrated kids, In a dark love, In over our heads, No breadcrumbs to lead us out, In a Grimm fairytale Made for morals Not happily ever after 04/22/2021