Written while sitting on at my game with the carnival this past week. I did a lot of reflecting while helping out with the show I used to travel with as it was set up near where I work. In the picture above, I am the one wearing pink :) This was my game, the balloon dart and no, it was NOT rigged.

Here's where I sat all those mem'ries ago
wide-eyed and innocent, no better did I know
how the real world would treat me once I was through
but a person defined as an empty "Hey You."

"You" as defined by the pitch fork armed crowd
is an insult heralded by ignorance so proud.
I learned to walk away smiling though I felt otherwise.
I wouldn't let them see the tears in this "Hey You's" eyes.

Here's where I ventured into the unknown
of make believe monsters whose fierceness has grown.
Staring at the skeletons of so many summers past.
Feeling at ease and a sense of being home at last.

Here's where I lived before my heart was broken
and lived with lies that were never quite spoken.
Smiling kindly at the crowd as they pass.
Living like a portrait trapped behind fragile glass.

This is where I existed before I existed at all.
Before my defenses and impenatrable wall.
This world had sheltered me within its bruised arms
and taught me that life is full of alarms.

Here's where I sat all those mem'ries ago.
Eighteen years old with a traveling show.
Writing poetry and composing such songs
to remember a life that felt right but you called it wrong.   

İMay 11, 2006 Lori S. Maynard