Carole Ann

Carole Ann turns

skitters like leaves in an eddy

of dress-suit men and women

whose frustrations lie

more deeply hidden.

They do not look,

and I wonder how they ignore

the childlike wonder of Carole Ann

with the masks we wear

torn away. 

copyright (c) 2011 Daniel J. Bishop

This poem was written during a productive period some years ago, when I was working at BCE Place in downtown Toronto.  It was inspired by a co-worker there who I observed, one day, trying to meet conflicting demands near the TD Tower elevators, being pulled in three directions at once, and , as the poem says, skittering like leaves in an eddy.

And we all feel like that sometimes, torn this way and that.  She just showed it, with her face and her body, the frustration of different demands, and the pull to go everywhere at once.  It was kind of touching, in a way, and kind of wonderful as well.  

The other people there, if they saw, continued on their way without more than a glance, like the drafts that set the leaves to dancing.  This swirl of motion, this individual momentarily laid bare for them to see the emotions on her face, revealed in her movements, stepped around and ignored.

I think that is kind of sad.

So I wrote about it.