I write a story.

Because I'm too afraid to change my own, I
fill this one to the brim with adventure.

I marry blue ink with yellowed paper and
compose a masterpiece.

I salvage a soul from my own rattled bones
and fashion the most courageous heroine
this world has ever known. 

I write her a life of fulfillment - 
of romance
of friendship
of heartbreak
of strife and victory
of peace
of danger
of daring
of risk and reward.

I waste my entire existence writing
this story.

I exhaust every ounce of energy breathing
life into its pages;
I slave over its contents until my final days.

I finish,
and I wish it was mine.