Another Horror Movie Poem by RIC BASTASA

who wants to show pain?
no one wants to show it and be pitied
pity can kill
makes you shrink like a chunk of sugar into some tears

everyone wants to show a happy face in the road
people walk and smiles everyone
and when the back goes a distance
everyone is back to their serious faces again
twisted lips, crashing teeth
misshaped jaws

one time that night
i show pain in the mirror
the mirror laughs
it is telling me it is not me
and i look funny with it
it says i do not fit well as a beggar of affection
it teases me
that when in pain i look like a liar
an old Pinocchio
with a broken wooden nose
reaching the door from the comfort room

i insist that this time it is true
my tears are rolling like a river on the tributaries of my cheeks
the mirror

finally screams
i am another movie.