Linda Burns - Belleview

I could hear the children
laughing.
They were not laughing at me.
There were beer stains
on the carpet.
But there was carpet.
It didn't matter.

Even the sun was cold
in Winter.
But I was always safe
and warm.
Standing between me
and danger
there was always someone.
Or something.

There were thing I did not have.
Things I didn't know existed.
I knew nothing of 'sick' or 'twisted'
'way back then
and I was happy in what I thought
was the world.

Sometimes now they
force me out
and make me see it
how they see it.
But they can't make
me stay in their world.
I go home when I am able.

And my sky is balls of cotton
and my walls are rosy swatches
and the floor is beer stained carpet.
I still hear the children laughing.

Linda Burns

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/belleview/