Wendy Raimi

Lilly White did not Spring in the Summer

She fell into Fall, this the season of her birth.

To two odd parents, crotchety and in groans

This, their talkative daughter, an accident by religion.

Lilly walked to school, talking to the air

A social gaffe to talk to an imaginary bear

The children watched, gasped and moaned

They would make fun of her in song, too different after all.

At seven, Lilly lost:

her innocence by stupidity, her religion by enlightenment and her mind by both.

A book that numbered stars and deaths

opened her heart to new visions to block out the old that caused her revision.

Television only added to the knowledge books brought

Foreign lands and other people who liked Lilly after all.

They didn’t know her personally, but who cared?

She loved and lost like they did, if you prick us, we bleed.

At nine broke her arm, at ten gained an obsession

Her life was doomed to constant repetition.

More sex came at seven, the grade now it is.

Tortured still by the outside world, "Carrie" and "Friends" bring pleasure.

Here comes high school, a moment of peace

More obsessions, more torture, she sinks into her own world.

Stories and poems, those of her own,

Flood through keyboards and pens, dying to flow

Laziness however bounds energetically

Evil grades in French, math and science combat the good of history and English.

Rational vs. irrational Lilly’s blamed for being good, blamed for being evil.

"I just want to be" she finally speaks, though not free.

Girls go to schools decked out in ivy. Lilly stays home to watch drip drop IVs

To a school just like the last one, only bigger (and with boys)

Lilly works hard, achieves the grade.

No longer blissful in ignorance, knowledge is power!

It’s starting all over again, the sex and the torture for poor Lilly White.

She digs into her worlds, she can no longer fight.

"I’m tired, I’m dying. Just leave me alone.

I want to go home, where ever that is."