and he talks to me
this young man
in a babble of words
I say nothing
he\'s too high
a touch of macho
surrounding an elevated mood
racing fast and furied
until he stops
suddenly
dead quiet
and his face starts to move
into creases and crinkles
reshaping while he struggles
his eyes go glassy
and then it\'s all sadness
this boy
this somebody\'s little boy
is doing it tough
because it\'s hard to be a man
all the time
~