April 17, 2000

 	Where have you gone?

	you
	strictly smiling
	strictly hiding in the shadows
	all this for you
	giving it up
	not just for one
	but for everyone

	why pretend
	to know the use
	of a ruler, a compass,
	a computer,
	a scientist's tools
	when it's this pain really
	that's the slow burn?

	no nearer to you
	than ten long years ago
	no happier now
	than before you were even born.

			~Michael Adams