infinite boat

There are children you see
in the world, hanging round
bars, swinging like monkeys
they once were, all grown
if not quite up, no longer
mom and dad to blame
without looking pathetic
They are nobody's children, now
They are nobody's children, now
and you have to talk
just as if you are one
of them yourself, but

you don't
know how

There are children you see
in the world, sizing up
trying to look down or knock
down each other's cup
'cause it's too half-full
for their envious eyes
so thirsty for worth
they cannot value why
They are nobody's children, now
They are nobody's children, now
and you have to talk
just as if you are one
of them yourself, but

you don't
know how

Here is the trick
If you want to come off
fit in
pass as, without clash
or scoff:
Just be who you are
uncertainly so
- a tenuous, tentative
vicious vindictive better friend
than foe

And they'll see it, and sense
the shape of some hypothetical
infinite boat you're both in.
On these shapeless seas
you have never seen,
but the pitch and the roll
of the deck make you wish
you could swim