molly's secret

molly) has brown hair and
brown eyes and
brown clothes.

molly) has a mother who
buys pink dresses,
for babies.

molly) doesn't have a dad.

molly) wears her uniform
to play.
it's all she has.

molly) sits behind the fence
and waits for the sun
to set.

molly) likes it when the sky goes 
blue
and the night makes everything
cool as kisses.

molly) sneaks into her house
when the goosebumps
go crawling up her arms.

molly) opens the door,
and creaks upstairs.

molly) wears her uniform to bed.
the brown jumper is fuzzy
and itchy
and still all she has.

molly) wakes up early in summer.
she opens her door and
goes to the attic.

molly) goes to the window, and
opens it wide.

molly) leans out, and grabs her bottle
off the windowsill.
it is her special bottle.
it makes her happy.

molly) waits until
the sun has come up,
and then she opens it.

molly) is quiet, 
quiet,
always quiet.
mummy is asleep.
(mummy is hungover)

molly) opens her bottle,
and looks inside.

"There's not much left," Molly thinks.

molly) holds the lid tight
in her unwashed hand.
the lid is connected to a wand,
a thin plastic stick,
ending in an 'O'

molly) had her mouth
in an 'O'
when she first used her bottle.

molly) dunks it in the bottle, and
swishes her wand around.
she can do magic with this wand.
she really can.

molly) puts it up to her lips,
and 
blows

molly) watches the white surface 
stretch out of the 'O'
and fill in.

molly) blows and blows
until it is large enough.

molly) lets the cloud float off the wand

molly) watches as it goes up
like a helium balloon at a summer fair,
like a space-ship going home
like a rocket, or a plane, or a helicopter.

molly) laughs.

molly) can make clouds, you see.
she can make them.

molly) has a half-full bottle,
a mother who drinks
a dad who never existed
and a scratchy brown jumper.

molly) is the happiest girl i know.