DOWN THE PRIMROSE PATH

When I was 10

I fell in love with a girl that didn't exist

I was in Waldenbooks and I discovered

Faeries by Brian Froud

I loved the world he had painted and drawn

creatures dangerous and mischevious

ugly and sublime

all living amongst us but just beyond the range of human perception

it was 1978, long before the US Army accepted Wicca as a religion

and before people spoke in the common tongue of such things

as faerie and the fay folk,

of Mother Earth and Father Sky and the magic around and between

(it was also before the time of the Internet and the search for old, dirty men

seeking out the affections of young children

which explains why you may feel a bit odd when you borrow the book

and see who I soon fell in love with

[remember I was ten

and this was before the world moved on])

I fell first in love with the art

the charcoal line and transparent swath of watercolor

that made my own drawings look absurd, childish and embarassing

(indeed, I stopped drawing altogether for nearly 10 years

not realizing that Froud was a trained artist

with much, MUCH time to create)

Then, under Faerie Fauna, under Primrose, I found HER

even at ten it was her eyes that got me