As I read her a story, she sat up in bed.

Crazy creatures and all, she favored the fairies.

I do indeed wonder what goes on in her head.

Oh, to be so grateful for what feels like everlasting youth.

She wants to run off to live in a kingdom.

Dragons and princesses are things we like to pretend.

All that is good must come to an end, hence, she no longer likes to play pretend.

Homework is constant-- she has no time to sleep in her bed.

It seems they lost their passion for teeth, good-day to all the retired tooth fairies.

She has a research project on the period of China's Three Kingdoms.

They shut down neverland, Peter has no more youth.

The sugar plum fairies no longer dance in her head. 

We stopped buying little bows to put on her head.

Lack of imagination, more like no care to pretend. 

She's still little to me, but it's hard to preserve her youth. 

Fearless, no more nightmares causing a need for her to sleep in our bed.

She leaves her smile trailing throughout the past, similar to pixie dust by fairies.

This isn't the same little girl who's inspired to reign our kingdom. 

Our family name is gone with the invasion of our kingdom.

New people, places, and things swarm her head.

She takes the ferry alone, reading a book, about something wiser than fairies.

She thinks of a profession, a thing she needs to accomplish in real life, not pretend.

Although she's home, metaphorically, someone else sleeps in her bed. 

I realized how fast she grew up, when her shirts no longer read youth.

After high school graduation our bird left the nest, concluding her youth. 

She packed her things, to move out of our kingdom.

The things in her empty room screamed for her to go back to sleep in her old bed.

The college graduation cap was soon put on her head.

The wedding she had almost appeared to pretend.

She looked beautiful, not like a princess, or mermaid, but like what was her favorite, a fairy. 

Not long after, she bought wings for her own little fairy.

A mirror image of her time in her youth.

I’m getting older, but I’ll be with them forever, or at least I’d like to pretend.

She helps her daughter form their own kingdom.

With jewelry and a crown, which constantly sits on her head.

And a picture of her castle, which hangs over her bed. 

Youth isn’t everlasting, since sleeping beauty woke up from her bed.

Always remember those fairies and creatures which once filled your head.

For the kingdoms must crumble when we can no longer play pretend