What Must It Be Like? Poem by Laurence Overmire

Have you ever known someone who just
Didn't fit in the ordinary way of
Human doing and dying
An outsider whose gifts were
Never appreciated?

What must it be like
To be birthed into a world where
Who you are has no value?

Where what you do is
Sometimes mocked, sometimes shamed
Rarely understood for its depth of soul
So rudely cast on bonfires of
Ignorant indifference?

What must it be like?
Have you ever asked why?
Dared to feel the needing edge of
Life's primal misery?

What must it be like?
Ask a poet, he (she) knows.

~ Laurence Overmire