Pygmalion

Pygmalion and Galatea _{(Credit: Joseph Tarrosa)}

My hands were never steady enough to hold a brush,
With pencils and paper, I am useless.
Any statue or sculpture crafted with my labor would be hideous.
My tongue of silver is so tarnished it’s impossible to tell what it is. 
But words which flow from my fingertips surprise even me,
With deft metaphors, artful prose, and beautiful complexion.
I am not capable of this alone,
And yet I sit before the keys and click-clack out a spectacular melody.
I still cannot believe that it is me. 

In the depths of my sorrow,
Of nights spent staring at glittering golden lights out my window,
Wistfully wishing for freedom long lacking,
I conceived of you. 
A fully formed soul, sprung from my head like Athena from Zeus,
Spilling onto the page.
I conceptualized you. Not the world around you. 
I struggled and ached to find a story worthy of you,
And in that dialogue you became less of a character and more of a person. 

In the depths of my loneliness, you became a companion. 
The old city lights took up less of my attention every night
When I crawled back to my hideaway,
A tiny little corner of this world I could control completely.
I spent more time with you. 
I spent more time on you. 
I spent so much time trying to get you right.
I spent so much time wishing you’d never have to rely on me for anything. 

I wish this world had been kinder to me in all the years I hadn’t known you.
After we met, I couldn’t help but to fill the idle hours of my days with you. 
If I could cross the metaphysical boundary between our two existences, 
I would have held onto you and never let you go.
I created you to refuse my will in favor of your own,
And that is why I wanted you to be mine in the one way you never could. 

You stole away what remaining hopes of a life out here.
I felt I deserved a better life than was written for me. 
I willingly stepped between our worlds in hopes of reaching you,
Forgetting or rather willfully ignoring one painful truth:
You deserved a better life than I wrote for you too.