performance anxiety
How could you call me gloomy, funny boy?
How little, then, you knew me; but I knew
how little you would let yourself enjoy.
I gladly would have been a clown for you,
I gladly would have taken off my mask --
for just as clowns are often sullen men,
we moody ones you hardly need to ask,
we long so eagerly to entertain.
And you, behind your smooth reflective face,
did you wish you could somersault and dance?
I could have shown you how. You had a place
in my act, but you wouldn't take the chance.
Instead I end in tears upon my knees,
before the audience I cannot please.
-------
Again, late 70s or early 80s. Image credit.
How could you call me gloomy, funny boy?
How little, then, you knew me; but I knew
how little you would let yourself enjoy.
I gladly would have been a clown for you,
I gladly would have taken off my mask --
for just as clowns are often sullen men,
we moody ones you hardly need to ask,
we long so eagerly to entertain.
And you, behind your smooth reflective face,
did you wish you could somersault and dance?
I could have shown you how. You had a place
in my act, but you wouldn't take the chance.
Instead I end in tears upon my knees,
before the audience I cannot please.
-------
Again, late 70s or early 80s. Image credit.
