Standing out

before the crowd

is so very unnatural to me,

always unique, a favourite singer

once said I was the oddest man

He knew,

yet I am not a natural performer,

safer in the shadows,

I write in the dark,

it is for others to shine

and for me to capture their spirit

yet sometimes I poke my mind

out into the open rain,

pouring like a melted mirror

and imagine the applause

for a single moment, the poem congratulated…

yet,

yet it is so much safer here

in the dark.

Ian D. Hall 2016