enlightened shadows

under the surface hides me--
playing hide 'n seek.
I call: "ollie ollie oxen free".
It's not my turn to be found.
Inside, not even I have seen some places.
Dark unexplored, unused, dusty corners.
Kind of afraid of the dark. I want my
Roy Rogers circling lamp to keep me
company in those dark caverns of my
psyche.
I need a hand holder until my eyes adjust
to the seats and isles of the motion picture
called "Me". Don't want to bump into anything
that goes bump in the night and spill my popcorn.
Barring that, I guess I'll go alone into the
parts of me I may not even have the courage
to love, not to mention all the others whom I
am now showing those parts to.
Children's games become adult's games
and no one is real. No one is just himself
not afraid to to be that authentic human.
Oh, I can be backed into a corner, too, and
become defensive when I feel threatened,
or the fear of its imminence.
That hidden part as well as the exposed
part that most who know me know wants to
come out and play
outrageous flamboyant irreverence wants
to come onto the stage of life
shocking all those nice little citizens
who form straight narrow lines never veering
from that boredom of mythological security
of pleasing all those who would look good
if I looked good--but dead inside wanting
recess from this authority induced madness.
Hey, I know a better way--a shortcut, but then
that might be breaking a lot of rules and
people all up the line to God Himself might
be a little miffed at my "unconventional"
behavior that I dug up in the dark recesses
of my forgotten psyche/mind/heart.



Copyright © 2012 Gary Frates