Vision Stalker
by
Elizabeth W. Bennefeld

Audio File available at the 2011 SFPA Halloween Poetry Reading

Eyes glance at me as I enter,
then turn away, indifferent.
Where once I found acceptance,
I see polite, but vacant faces.
My words are spoken
in a newly foreign language.

You have not changed. It's I
who have become a stranger--
through choices not approved,
prowling along uncommon paths
beyond the borders of community.

I will not walk your narrow roads
another night or day
to reattain belongingness
or buy lost camaraderie.

Going my own way, I will stalk
the visions that cry out to me
in the night from distant places.

A solitary hunter, I will seek new voices
that sing in harmony with my heart's song.

An alien in your midst, no longer.