In Celebration of the Furniture Year
By Michelle Garren-Flye

On that morning twenty-nine years ago,
I wanted to be a princess
so much I shouted my beliefs 
loud enough to drown lingering doubts

and stormy weather that took the helium 
right out of the balloons, so the wind
sounded like Daffy Duck and my pink and yellow
and blue spheres hung flaccid

by the sign announcing our nuptials,
and it was too late for real daffodils, so I
made do with false ones, mixed with daisies
and mournful white roses

and still I have no regrets because
for at least twenty-five of those years
I did believe I was a princess, or at least as good
as a mom of three who lost her figure in the war can be,

and I have been awarded all these badges
for my courage, and my ambition now 
is to deserve them, which I do, much more than I did
on that morning twenty-nine years ago.