I have watched them gathering On corners and in bars

Hollering

Their names and the names of people. They know

In high shrill voices

Which are sad,

Because they are too vibrant

And too electric

With a will to live

And be alive

To be alive, they are dead

With the thought of their own dying; So they gather

And shout at meeting each other In high quick voices of greeting.

Unhappy they are and young And their lot is misery,

Not one out of ten of them will Ever find what all are seeking-

Why?

Because love is elusive

Because lovers are illusions

Because love is itself

The trickiest mask of them all.

So they meet in their places And drink sad time away And sing slow songs To deceive

Themselves and the night, Or their fates, who knows,

Into thinking

And believing

That maybe time

And their desires will

Some time coincide and somehow Fulfill their nights of longing—

That is why they wear their masks, Because they are lonely

And long

For someone to care

And for a time

When

They will be lonely no longer,

To be lonely and to long-

That is why they wear their masks.

-Doyle Eugene Livingston

7