Disengaged

Tell me how you feel
And I’ll try and understand
It may not be easy
But life rarely is
And I get your feelings
My heart hears you
But my brain needs some time
To translate, to comprehend

You say things would be easier
Stuff would be simpler
If you were uninvolved
I hear you out, I see your point

Things would have been easier
If Marguerite were uninvolved
If she disengaged herself from her feelings
And left the world alone

And stuff would have been simpler
If Jeanne were uninvolved
If she escaped her silly visions
And laughed it all away

If only, I, too, could be uninvolved
If only, I, too, could be disengaged

One of the first poems I had written in Ottawa, about a boy still back home in West Virginia.