Moonlight glints and winks with a soft hum as girls in soft satin dresses dance around the fire. I can taste notes of empty forests and flowers smeared with blood on my tongue. Different reasons of their betrayal plague my mind. I opt to scream inward and swallow the lump in my throat. I see the candles lighting the wooden staircases of the haunted castle as I step in. The sight reminds me of when I was a child and held bears made of cotton tightly out of fear when I was left alone. I look down at my feet to see pictures of old loved ones crushed under them like worthless blossoms. Do I feel happy? Sad? Gloomy? Maybe all of them at once. I guess that’s the life of a dandelion girl.
The poems and pictures in this book represent the struggles I felt as an outcast and how I learned to find an exit for myself in the wonders of the world. I tried to capture the feeling of being rejected and later accepted into a new world in the poems and pictures I gathered. I hope people with similar experiences can read my book and feel a little less alone than they did before. I hope they realize things will get better. Your wings of fire will emerge.
“I wish to be a fairy with wings of fire
wings made of my anger that will never tire
wings so strong, they will never quiver
of hearing my reputation any soul will shiver
wings so sturdy no one will be able to hurt me
wings that can bring down anyone, no matter how mighty
wings that reach up above any mountain and to the sky
wings that will surge and in the greatest of heights fly
I wish to be a fairy made of the sun fire
I wish to be the true me that I desire
This book is about my struggles as the strange kid in every room I ever entered, and my fantasies of other worlds.”