CHERISH
5.11.98


and it’s true, here I am to prove it
a lot of things said about me are true
a lot of things said about me are false
it’s a matter of perspective, I guess;
more where you stand
what angle the light falls
where the shadow casts

of course,
there’s a million other metaphors
a million other ways of saying the same thing

you see, even though what they say is true;
from their perspective I am a permanent fixture:
furniture

that is, I don’t find myself in their scene
but they are also wrong

from my perspective
I do go out,
from my perspective
I go many places

again, its where you stand
that determines what you see

those stories that we all hear of our childhood
the silly things we do as children
the ones that make the grown-ups of the time laugh
my stories were all out me, harry houdini the escape baby

that’s all in the past
so what if I don’t do the scenes
all the ones that most people do

besides, what’s wrong with sitting on some steps
watching the world walk by
it is an experience to experience time passing
to me, from my perspective

you see people, individual boys and girls
normal kids who have normal lives
who go to parties with their friends, and play
and fall in love and make enemies and
everything else that normal people do

that I miss my childhood is granted; everyone does
that I missed my childhood is the feeling
earlier than that was a surreal dreamland
my adolescence was put on hold at school
and it must have been given to somebody else
because I haven’t seen it yet

on those steps, watching those people,
I see my own missing adolescnce,
I see people with the freinds I never had,
falling into the love I was never blesssed with

but you get used to being alone

at least, you learn to forget what you never had
and cherish what little you do.