She memorizes her lines on buses going to Everywhere
And Nowhere all at once
Because she will return
The same way she has gone
Her displacement will be
Zero

She picks out her costume to match Everyone Else
First the base and then a little something Extra
To give herself a little character
She feels like a character
Trapped in a gilded fairytale book
One with the ugly Real Fairytales
Where Cinderella’s stepsisters cut off a pound of their flesh for a promise of happiness
Where the Little Mermaid gives up all and is given nothing in return

But for her, there will be no slammed covers
No happily-ever-afters
Or even tragic-deaths-and-funerals-attended-by-the-masses
Or even three inevitable centuries as sea foam
If she fails to follow the rules of her world

Her life is like war
Glorious on the outside to the people who do not know better
Who do not see beyond unwavering patriotism and valiant charges
Yet those who know see the scars, the pain, the ultimately useless deaths in the grand scheme of things
They do not ever wonder if a single death is all that a war movie should end with
They know that it is enough

She turns away from mirrors, hides behind cameras
Desperate to capture moments in time that will soon be forgotten by everyone else
To avoid the look in her own eyes
She can learn to see in the dark
Learn to make her way through the gloom that turns Everyone Else into Spectres and Spectators

She runs through rehearsals, faking and smiling just the way she has envisioned
Every single lonely night when the dark is too bright
With people she thinks she knows
When she breaks out of character
And she will break
They will all know

She finds her props
A book, a binder, a perfectly sincere smile
Strewn carelessly around an Always Changing Set 
She picks out the soundtrack to her Show
Blocks her every move
Careful to never turn her back towards the Audience

She hides behind curtains of night
In the Wings that she wishes would give her Flight
Feeling her pulse hammering so hard she fears she might finally cave
And flee to her own Far, Far Away
If that even exists
Perhaps it will be just like Duloc
Forcing herself to wait
For the right Cue
Line

She choreographs every little detail
Desperate to make people see
The girl she should be
Not the girl that she is
Because No One wants to see Reality

She improvises when others forget their part
Clinging on to the framework of the script
All the while hoping desperately
For a reprieve from the part she has been cast
For the courage to cast aside the lifeline she has been tossed
And instead keep on swimming
But she cannot swim
She is too
Afraid

She lets other people draw on the
Canvas of her skin
Concealing and covering
With colors almost close enough to her Real Self to be believable
Yet still so off that she wishes she could just sink beneath the surface
And never come back up
Because
Surely
Death-by-Drowning is much the same as Death-by-Suffocation

She holds herself back
Forces herself forward
To break out of the Comfort Zone
That is cold and impersonal, yet oddly safe
But it isn’t time
When will it ever be
Time

She knows nothing of a world
Without deceit, without lies
Without little half-truths
Told to shield the Idealistic from the Realistic
They say that truth is beauty and beauty truth
But the Mirror tells her that her Truth is not Beautiful

She answers Character Questions
Always asking herself what would (insert name of someone who is happy here) say
She runs through ridiculous scenarios over and over
So that when the inevitable, the unexpected happens, she will keep on going

She must keep on going
The Show must keep on going
She must play her role
There will be need for a Last Line Of Defence
She will not be the Weakest Link

So she memorizes her lines on buses going to Everywhere
And Nowhere all at once
Because she will return
The same way she has gone
Her displacement will be
Zero