If You Were a Clown
She had always wanted
to be a clown.
Not a happy clown
that would have been easy
but a sad one
with a perpetual tear
coursing down her colorful face.
It was harder to convince people
you were sad
if you were a clown.
This is one of my first poems. It was something that just showed up on the page when I was doing a kind of stream of consciousness writing and it encouraged me to wonder about poetry and to follow its lead.