In an opal dream cave, the speaker finds a fairy so fragile her wings are thinner than petals or snowflakes. The fairy is unafraid and steps onto her hand, but the speaker closes her palms and carries her out like a treasure. When she opens her hands, the fairy cannot survive the ordinary world—or being held—and dissolves by degrees: thistledown, a speck in a sunbeam, then nothing. The speaker feels wonder, then loss, and perhaps guilt at having tried to keep something too delicate. The mood is hushed and dreamlike, beautiful but sad, like watching something lovely vanish because you held on too tightly. Now the cave feels empty, as if the magic depended on leaving it free.
The Opal Dream Cave — Summary
In an opal dream cave I found a fairy: Her wings were frailer than flower petals, Frailer far than snowflakes. She was not frightened, but poised on my finger, Then delicately walked into my hand. I shut the two palms of my hands together And held her prisoner. I carried her out of the opal cave, Then opened my hands. First she became thistledown, Then a mote in a sunbeam, Then--nothing at all. Empty now is my opal dream cave.