Boy Walking On The Road

Boy Walking on the Road

Today I saw young boy

walking at the edge of a country road.

His body misshapen

yet his gait firm and determined,

an MP3 player plugged into his ears.

Was he shutting out a world

of stares and schoolhouse taunts?

Was he orchestrating, choreographing

a life beyond the twisted body?

Was he the prophet for this day?

I wanted to take him up -

wrap him in my arms –

fly him away -

baptize him in the lake

of straight-boned boys.

I wanted everyone

to see only his soul.

To have each of us

touch his body

with tenderness.

I wanted a world of grace

and blessings for those

who teach us, by their presence,

what each day can hold and that

a prayer lies always waiting on the skin.

There Were No Circus Tickets

There Were No Circus Tickets

when I was a child.

Poor is what my neighbors were.

I thought everyone lived this way.

Christmas 1953 we got a television

but my younger sister was so sick she

wouldn’t even get up to watch or open her presents.

Later I watched the circus from

the box in the living room

and began to dream.

My father never denied us what was free

or that he could make.

Soon, a swing set sprang into the back yard

made from discarded pipe he painted green

complete with a hanging bar from smaller pipe.

I became a traipse artist

hanging first from knees,

then ankles

and soon from just one ankle –

Oh, I was glorious swinging

one foot wrapped around the chain.

I was performing, the trees applauded

and the chickens sang.

Elephants and the exotic animals

from “Jungle Boy” on Saturday morning TV

all paraded through our yard

as I would swing-sway, then

tight-rope across the top pipe.

There was no stopping me

in my own amazing circus

as I wrapped myself in cotton shorts –

a daisy chain halo circling my hair.

Singing calliope music in my mind.

I even perfected the bicycle - first with no hands

later I could stand on the seat my arms outstretched and free

no small task on a country rock based road.

It was the best free circus anyone ever saw.