I see you now, disrobed, a tryant emperor shorn of clothes,
Childhood born fears that transformed to adult screams – you came so far.
Played on the screens of my mind’s TV dreams, you filled my years, fate defining hate drilled tears.
Fear of failure tears.
Fear filled years
Fear of failing to match peers.
Faces I knew, places untrue, spread over nightmare skies filled with clouds of lies, a burning sun of shame and rain of blame.
No safe home to go, or a field in which to sow, seeds of hope that could help me cope, for the stage you set this actor’s regret.
Innocent faces from school that still reign and rule, with unrightly grace in this ignoble place,
Like horned raiders they return to slash and burn, leaving dark scorched earth where peace should have been born.
Smell the smoke that will curl and choke, and cling fast to a time long past,
Watch it kidnap a life, then demand a ransom of strife,
And the body lies poor, naked on a cold concrete floor.
I see you now,
I see you now
I SEE YOU NOW
Graham Parker's Poetry 