What did it cost,

to bare your soul

alone,

and in the spot light?

Is it cathartic,

is there healing when

you speak your truth

out to the expectant faces

before you?

How do you respond within,

as they respond with laughter,

and does the empathetic silence

become a balm for your soul?

Or are you simply spent,

does each perfomance

take a little more of your soul,

or do you grow through it?

(I suspect the latter, for that

is what I see, but you are on stage

so what I see might be simply 

what you want me to see….)

Today I am left wondering if I

saw you more clearly than ever,

but I understand that,

because

it is in a

kind of performance

that where I

give myself away too…

Mother and Son 5 years ago at his Graduation when Life was very different!