Moonlight glints and winks with a soft hum as girls in soft satin dresses dance around the fire. I can taste notes of empty forests and flowers smeared with blood on my tongue. Different reasons of their betrayal plague my mind. I opt to scream inward and swallow the lump in my throat. I see the candles lighting the wooden staircases of the haunted castle as I step in. The sight reminds me of when I was a child and held bears made of cotton tightly out of fear when I was left alone. I look down at my feet to see pictures of old loved ones crushed under them like worthless blossoms. Do I feel happy? Sad? Gloomy? Maybe all of them at once. I guess that’s the life of a dandelion girl.

The poems and pictures in this book represent the struggles I felt as an outcast and how I learned to find an exit for myself in the wonders of the world. I tried to capture the feeling of being rejected and later accepted into a new world in the poems and pictures I gathered. I hope people with similar experiences can read my book and feel a little less alone than they did before. I hope they realize things will get better. Your wings of fire will emerge.