I have loved you 
with a love
to which you had no right.

Through the years,
I have turned any reproaches
—inward.
I have made myself,
who was innocent,
—nothing;
you, who were to blame,
—blameless.

I have sought your freindship,
your good opinion,
your forgiveness,
and I have lost myself.

All these years,
I have held your
recognition of me
to be of supreme importance;
the recognition of the wounded innocence
of my little-girl soul,
as insignificant.

I have said,
in the privacy of my heart,
again and again,
that it was unimportant,
it meant nothing ...
until I believed it,
- completely.