Self-Portrait of a Fourteen-Year-Old

by David N. Dodson
written in 1960

I live inside a troubled sea
Of people odd and strange to me;
A pantomime of worried faces,
Of soot and smog and breakneck paces.

I loathe this life! Its hold on me
I must escape to ramble free
To a paradise far far away
Where light rain falls and tall trees sway

My heart’s among the meadow grasses
Far from the hurried, worried masses
Where flowers bloom and gay birds sing
And peace lies over everything.