When I Was Small

I've always preferred solitude to companionship
Even when I was small

I preferred spending recesses alone
Curled up in a corner, crying
Afraid to move a muscle
Unable to join the rest of the children,
playing hopscotch and four corners

I always preferred being alone
Reading my books, my precious stories
And then playing with the characters
They were my best friends
It was like I'd known them all my life

All alone, it seemed to everyone else
Playing with the people in my head
Whose lives seemed so much more glamorous than mine
So much more real, to me anyway

I tried in desperation to make them understand
But they left to play ponies
Or fairy princesses

I was a princess once
Those characters from plays or songs
They told me so

And, the ponies didn't understand
Frolicking and prancing in the sun
They didn't understand
How the people in my head
Were the only ones
Who made me feel alive