Poem 6

[abyssalcalexan]

There once was a child
Curled up tight within themselves
Creating an inner story
An inner lifetime
And many worlds
But staring out the theater
To the outside world
Separated from it by the veil
Of the body containing the mind
The spirit
The essence

Not quite touching
Not quite understanding
Lost without a roadmap
Or a guidebook
Or rules that make sense

Any attempts to read what is given
In the actions and speech of others
Must be translated into something understandable
But to do so requires time
And the ability to understand the starter language
Which does not exist in an entirety

Leaving bits and pieces
And vague phrases that don't quite make sense
To be all that can be used to understand this strange world
Filled with contradictions and mistakes

And an outer mask covered by cracks and missing pieces
Filled in by glue and held together by tape
Applied by well meaning and well taught natives
Who connected with
And befriended
The alien child underneath
Constantly reaching out to the world
That they can never touch
That they feel and sense instead through others
Forever a step behind and diagonal
To these strange native people
Of this strange untouchable world

There once was a child
Who never stopped being an alien
An outsider
Putting on a broken mask
And mimicking their loved ones
In an attempt to fit into their world
A world that was never
And will never be
Their own
But just might become
A home