X Leaves A Flower - entered for the Margaret Reid Competition!

Competition details can be found here
http://www.winningwriters.com/contests/margaret/ma_guidelines.php

X leaves a flower.
(for H.)

Pluck, Puck, Pluck, 50 years ago
the Fairies placed a changling -
a replacement baby and expected
a return on investment. I saw you
on television grown up, your back bent.

I knew your isolation, the despair
greater than the money, the London flat
the better schools. The never fit,
the not acceptable history.
The equation: you - x = Fairy opportunity.

It lasted until the truth crept in,
on the sixth toe of blackmailers.
They came to take you back and found
you'd lost your Mother's tongue.
The secret ways, the Fabulous -
the plots and twisted needs.

Turn in your grave Fairy
as I sense you must -
A charm: this soft yellow Rose
for a child: long ago.

(c) Rosalind J. Lee