There Are Fairies

Her father gave the tattered ball to her
and said, if you unroll it carefully,
go slowly, and don't break the rubber band,
you'll find a fairy in her bed in there.
And so she sat unravelling that ball;
each day she wound the rubber off with care
until she reached the centre, soft and black.
There was no fairy in that rubber core
and tears washed love's illusion from her eyes,
which made her father laugh, and laugh the more.

Then in the garden, where she'd run to cry
she saw a pair of fairies dance, with wings
a-shimmer in the evening air… she saw!
And as she laughed and clapped with wild delight,
her father stormed into that magic place,
slipped on some moss, and found that fairies might
not live in old golf balls – and yet somehow
they come to help when little girls are hurt.
The doctor set her father's legs in casts,
which made her laugh and laugh, and laugh the more.