November 1976

Age: 18 years

Give and Take

Wait, now.
Listen for a minute
Joker.
I want to know what hurt
you feed inside you?
What scar or canker bleeds
your heart?

Someone must have touched there
once.
I suppose
it hurt very much
then.
These things always do.
But,
Come on out.
I don't think it's like that
anymore.
Come on -
Stop this show!
You don't have to play the fool
with me.
I can see through all of your pretending.
And since your brightest jester's motley
cannoy hide a tarnished heart,
the only thing to do
is
take it out and give it
gift-wrapped
to another.
I think those belled and pointed shoes
of yours
have grown too small.

Background: Bernadette Bosky poem.