When you express yourself,
reveal yourself, expose yourself,
sharing with others your thoughts,
dreams and intuition, people
react to you in two basic ways
One is to relish in you, to feast
in your nature, to water your roots
and nurture what you offer, to open
themselves to new possibilities,
welcoming you, embracing you,
sharing parts of themselves with you,
aspects they had up to then kept private,
under lock and key, beneath tightly woven cloth
and flamboyant gratuity — parts they now
feel they can disclose, just as you did when
you opened your mind, heart and soul to them
The other is to embellish you with mock,
scorn and dubious humor, or lather you up
with silent acquiescence, nodding their
heads and shaking your hand,
diving back inside the motions of their
routine as soon as they can, eager to resume
their scripted to and fro, without further ado,
itching to stick the world back on their precious
pin, on the head of which they enjoy dancing,
the world writhing beneath their feet
Such are the ways of people. You’ve known it long,
but pretended not to because you wanted to hold on
to a version of a world more welcoming and worthwhile.
From the poetry collection IF YOU FALL, RISE AGAIN