This way I go as I’m told to.
This way I walk to obey.
Ahead the path I must follow.
The path I must walk every day.
Broad and wide is the pathway
Smooth the ground is to tread.
And yet it’s the things they don’t see,
The things at the sides, that I dread.
I try to hold my head up,
To walk with strength and pride.
To go among the many,
Among the many to hide.
Fearful things are watching me,
Creeping up the sides.
Waiting to leap out on me
With the terror of surprise.
I hear them and I see them.
I smell their evil smell.
I know the terrible places
Where they hide and where they dwell.
Mine alone this torment.
Many pass by but don’t see.
Mine alone this fear
Of the demons chasing me.
I walk on with the others.
I won’t let them see me fall.
Until too close for comfort
One wrong step ends it all.
Suddenly everyone sees me.
They stop and stand and stare.
Me in the grip of the monster;
The monster that isn’t there.
I reach out and beg them to see it,
To free me from its fearful grasp,
But they tut and they look disdainful,
“You shouldn’t walk on the grass.”
E. Travelli 