Sidney Beck Poet Free verse

To Thine Own Self Be True

TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE


Big  honest eyes
Different  to the others.
Soft,   shy,   gentle nature:
A sunlit rose among weeds,
A  new dress of   blue and green.

Now in a claustrophobic mask
In the darkened room of  a  tent,
Clown performing circus tricks
Falsely funny for a coarse audience,
Speech choked by noise, afraid to speak,
Appears familiar to all but
Who really knows her?
Ugly duckling not yet a flying swan.

Jelly   the  Clown
Eager to please the audience,
An invented   person to be liked:
Exploitation is invited -
Throw a pie at her -
Jelly  is loved.    Angela   is unknown.
A thousand eyes give no real love.
Jelly  inside   aches  to return
To   a  weedless  rose garden

It was a new dress once.
But dirty ragged cloth is unwanted
In a   room  of   perfection.
An   outsider   which  does not belong.                                    
Scream   abuse   at  it -
A Cinderella   cloth  to be bullied -
It   has   rips and stains,
Its real worth   is   shadowed,
Its   real   nature is   perverted.
Use it  and  throw it aside after.

The performance nears its end.                                     
Raising  a ragged flag  of distress,
Big eyes  penetrate  a silent listener
In   the dark back row
Beckoning to   Angela.
And   two   voiceless  soulmates 
Return  to  the  roses.

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