Pinocchiette

I have been a marionette all my life –

Singing and dancing to the Pied Piper’s tune.

Without the music, I have nothing in my life.

Don’t know what I want, can’t speak for myself.

I don’t know what it means to love and desire,

To live in the world as though I belonged.

It is so easy to do what I’m told,

Follow the actions they pull on my strings.

But sometimes I feel I could be so much more,

Destined for greater things I cannot articulate.

Pinocchio became a real boy in the end.

I hope I, too, can be a real girl some day.