Careful of the company you keep

Before there was you,
there was me.
And afterward...still me.
I'm the original fairy house dweller,
the hands holding tiny treasures,
the heart giving clever gifts that
I never questioned were right until
your blank face, blank brow.

If your heart is as big as you say,
why do you need to say it so often?
If your mind is so creative,
why announce that instead of creating?
I once needed labels to know who I was,

but as I grow, each of my tree rings
whispers who I've become.
You aren't young though; Why so few rings?
Why behave as a sapling when you could be halfway to a redwood?

If someone must state who they are 

over and over, evangelizing their lifestyle, 

creating a persona,
be careful because they may be a  bit lost.
A lost one can keep you very busy
trying to stick to the shell of rules they've made

to create an outline to know where 

their own edges stop

and where the world around them begins.
Don't let them fuzzy and confuse yours.

You worked too hard, Little Tree.