I wish I were an icicle

Dripping in your lap

I wish I were your bicycle

Not just your saddle bag

You ask me what it's like to be

A prodigy unknown

It's being an actor acting

For a camera with no film

And the camera pans the party

And nobody is here

Everyone is hiding

In the atmosphere

Surprise! they say

And happy birthday

Then they look away

Gatecrashing the walkabout

I point up to the stars

Visible in daytime

Like the lights of oncoming cars

Converging on the terminus

Swarming to the sea

People who know algebra

People who are theoretically free

They turn away the tennis star

They welcome the unkind

Their lives are all so harmless

You wish that you were blind

Shaking out the cornflakes

Into the Chinese bowl

While you read about the zero

Where everybody goes