'singing melancholy baby' Timothy r gates, 4/30/2012

Been in love since before
I was conceived
singing melancholy baby -
Intuitively
... then way too loud -
Now rests like old jeans,
Too worn to wash in a machine,
Well worn for easy on and off.
A Dr's script is a well fitted bandage
yet it will not unveil this song,
Heart and soul - or blank stares
Love's violation taught this refrain.
It is what's gifted my empathy,
That same hymn - melancholy baby -
Some days praying that innocence was the gift instead
that I could recall giggling
without a fear of whispers in the other room,
or a fist not being watched out for...
I was taught that God or an Angel watches over wee ones -
Must've been preoccupied during those days.
Why do 'big people' mess over children?
Simply because they can.
Funny, when children are big enough to hit back
or to say with character, "fuck off!"
big people - I'm told - get well.
God does too.