The cure for madness...

Today when walking down the street, I saw a madman.
He had no clothes, he had no shame,
And a head of filthy hair to tame...

What gave him this sense of elation and joy?
This thrill of being free of shame and coy?
People stared at him, wondered at his state...
Laughed at him, then felt sorry and even pitied his fate.

Did he really care, this madmen for our worries and sympathy?
Would he even grace us with a glance?
What had put him in such a trance?
Was it some extreme ecstasy or some terrible loss?
I wondered, watching him from the street, across.

I quite envied him,
What fun would it be to give in to every whim!
Not to care about a thing,
Once could dance around and sing...
Yet watching him from this side of the fence,
I knew I could never leave this pretense...

I could never leave the ways of the madhouse I live in,
And let the madman inside me win.


“I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.” 
-Kahlil Gibrain, The Madman