Gifts Poem by Nancy Terrell

He entered her world bearing gifts of knowledge
concerning areas of which she knew nothing.
He seemed to think that his reality
should be hers as well.
And so, in adopting her as his Pygmalion,
Access was denied into her sight.
Together they lived, two lives intermeshed
pretzels in sleep.
She listened and learned, not paying, sometimes,
as full attention as he thought necessary.
She adopted his ways- his hours, his habits.
He anticipated her moods
hiding in shadows to avoid them.
When the years had quietly raped
her own knowingness
Leaving her forgetful and unconcerned,
there came a parting
of the clouds in which she lived
Remembering the talent she had claimed before acquiescence,
ridding herself of physical encumbrances,
she retreated intoher mind.
Discovering there great aloneness
in being together
She took pen in hand once more
to reinvent her life.
Going nowhere, seeing no one
but the automation of him,
she relived her past
Not as remembered, but as intended.
Adding hues and spaces
wherever she desired,
Discovering in her need the innate quality
- the essence of her missing.