I wandered slowly, as a clown
En route to make the sick kids laugh,
When all at once I saw the frowns,
A host, of upset hospice staff;
They crossed their arms, they blocked the doors,
I was not welcome anymore.

Belligerent as the stars online
Who rise to fame through getting drunk,
They stretched in never-ending lines
Across the kiddie hospice front:
Ten thousand it seemed at first glance,
Shaking their heads in frightening stance.

“You’re too scary for kids!” Is what
They said in heckling waves of mean:
To go on I felt I could not
Without my jocund company:
I begged- and begged – but no one thought
What joy to children I had brought.

Now lost, when on my floor I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
The kids will flash into my mind
Which is the curse of solitude;
The laughter stops and crying fills
Spring funerals with daffodils.