Some of us are not cut out to be happy.
Our role is to suffer undramatically, quietly,
at home, while the world goes by outside.
We are the ones who pay for your daily joys.
Our marriages fail; our health; our wealth;
our prospects turn to dust.
If we pluck up the courage to venture
out into your world, we become
scarecrows to frighten the black birds
from your sunny fields.
How we make you laugh!
You think we’re pathetic.
At dusk, when we close our eyes, the birds
gather on our outstretched arms and crow.
This is the best we can do: to sing
along with the black birds at evening.
So you can find us funny.
So you can remember how happy you are.
