Girl with Lantern Eyes

Once upon a sinkhole, a prince who'd lost his people

Slipped out through Daddy's keyhole late one night

With no land left to fight for, nor love quite fit to bite for

The crown felt far too tight to slip from sight

But when the stars came calling, so free and free for falling

Their sparkling arcs across the sky

Like fireflies on fixtures, like drops of devil's tinctures

He'd lay for days and wonder, and crawl through caves of slumber

While happily ever under, gone for days

But in his dreams a lover sprang forth from under covers

A crest of deafening colors, songs, and rays

With stripes and spotted feathers, a storm of sunny weather

She smiled as if forever high

But in her eyes were embers of memories long dismembered

Of sparks so clever tempers rise

So he made to understand her in all her grace and grandeur

While flames that only fan her, rise and fall

And though the fire burned them, he raked the coals and turned them

The steady breath of learning, rise and fall

Cause surely as tomorrow has yesterday to borrow

A light to follow through the caves

Through dark and ancient paintings, of children's rants and ravings

Her lantern eyes might light the way