Sociopath

[billy]

"Never hug and kiss them, never let them sit on your lap. The end result is a happy child. Free as air, because he has mastered the stupidly simple demands society makes upon him." - James B. Watson i'd have just stole that part of the quote and made it the 1st verse as so;
Never hug and kiss them,
never let them sit on your lap.
The end result is a happy child

I don’t know how to be kind to people.
My skin still bursting at the seams
from disheveled insides it cannot contain, dishevelled
tenderness fascinates me, but is always

beyond my grasp. Like a scientist who watches
his animals mate, makes notes
then compiles his solemn essays, I regard
the external gestures, never knowing

how they work, or why one should even try.
As a boy in the corner I studied silence, i love this line, it speaks the whole poem
its equations everywhere, drawn on the
blackboards of doors and hallways,

which sometimes gave me terse footsteps,
some scraps presented like bones to a dog,
but not often. Not often enough. Now I live alone,
and observe life through invisible glass.

i think this is worth putting to print.
it has more than one layer, it has a feel of wanting to be forgiven
yet not knowing why. (for me)

i love some of the original lines you use and some of the insights. the boy in the corner was special.
i think this is an up there poem jack. the fear is in there along with the recognition.
it makes the coldness of the 1st person seem warmer.
extremely good write (jmo)