My Coat

5:00 am And I am most alive It's still quiet I know they are on the road The cars, the trucks, the trailers But I can't hear them Rather only bird song from the trees near by I breathe but I do not inhale air, I inhale life This time will pass though As it should I will get the breakfast Do the little house hold things here and there And then leave this home, this shelter Before the key goes into the lock though I will put on one last piece of clothing My coat of extroversion To hide this shy, fearful, nervous introvert from the world With it on ... I'll crack jokes I'll laugh loudly with the others I'll talk about things that I don't really care about Just to keep things normal Just to avoid the stares The stares that come if I say ... that I try to write poetry ... that last night I signed up on PoetrySoup ... that I found some great passages by Thoreau ... that American Transcendentalism fascinates me Hell no! Are you crazy!? I've got a really great coat I'll talk about performance engine parts About the silly politicians About headlines in the newspaper About traffic and potholes And I may even throw some useless complaining to top it off By the way, did I ever mention I have this really great coat It's awesome!!!