I Am An Illusion...

I am an illusion...

Unless you come close enough to touch the gray in my hair or the creases on my face. Unless you look into my eyes, I can be anyone or anything living in your mind...

I can be the mother you never had, the sister you always wanted, the friend who understands or the lover you dreamed of once.

I can be skinny and young or old and bosomy.

I can talk to you while a cake,or dinner, bakes in the oven. Matching mugs of coffee, or tea, or hot chocolate in front of us.

I can laugh with you from the overstuffed armchair or smile with you while we lay on the sofa wrapped around each other.

I can be in a sequined gown, dancing under a chandelier that no ceiling was meant to support...or in a flannel shirt in a cabin on a snowy night

You read into me what is inside of you and for a moment or an hour I am your distraction. I am "what is possible, if only...."

Who am I?

I am someone you talk to online. Someone who sits in her attic and listens to dreams you spin around me and for a while your dreams are mine.

I listen as you fold me into your deepest secrets. You tell me things no one has heard from you before. You tell me because you trust I will not use them to hurt you or judge you and we are limited only by where our imagination can take us.

I can hear the water calmly meeting beach sand as you tell it...or I can hear it rage around us with a storm's anger if you choose...

We can sail away to warm or unknown lands...or we can sit on the dock with our bare feet in the water.

You lived these things in your mind so many times that you can make me see them clearly through your words and for a while I am the secondary character of a well loved "play"...

I listen to each act of your play and for as long as you talk I stand near you and watch it unfold for the first time.

This is your gift to me. It cannot be bought or sold or wished for, it can only be given as you freely let me into those most private places that keep your dreams and hopes alive...

In reality you would hurry past me on a busy street...but for a moment or an hour I am your illusion...