When I was a child I saw as a child

Walking scary streets

Avoiding the pavement cracks

Hoping for a God-who-saves

To save me

.

I watched normality, envious

Each window framed  a mysterious montage

Full of the glorious ordinariness of the other

Performing their small evening rituals

Needing no secrets

.

And me, an alien observer

Hidden in the static noise

At the edge of the radar screen

Tentacles twitching

.

It is the gift of the outsider

To see inwards

To linger in doorways

And enter reluctantly

Welcome but wary

Never quite learning how to belong