Her Story

by Bob Dougherty
 
As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved 
in her laughter and being part of it, until (1.) I realized 
her laughter was really a part she was playing;
the lead part in a script she was creating in real time, 
the play evolving before my eyes
and I only
a prop.  
 
Her eyes laughed, then pouted,
and then just as quickly
changed moods like a butterfly fluttering,
changes directions, on a breeze blown day.  
I watched through her eyes as the scenery
appeared, then disappeared,
but I only
a prop.  
 
I became caught-up in her drama
and suggested my thoughts for her script. 
Abruptly her laughter ended
and a frowning dark cloud enveloped me. 
I had broken the rules of her fantasy world, 
where a four-year-old girl goes alone
and a grandfather is fortunate
to be only 
a prop.  
 
1.        Italics are the first line of Hysteria by T. S. Eliot.