One Poem by Gregg Norman

 

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN 

 

I’m gonna run away 

and join a circus –  

no, not a circus, 

a traveling B circuit 

small-town carnival 

with a few rides, 

some games of chance, 

maybe a geek 

and a hermaphrodite. 

Catch me if you can. 

 

I’m gonna run away 

and be a cowboy 

riding the range 

following the south end 

of northbound cows, 

roping grizzly bears, 

fanning my six-gun 

at a row of bad guys 

along a saloon bar. 

Catch me if you can. 

 

I’m gonna run away 

and be an auctioneer 

with staccato chatter 

and a hardwood hammer 

to bang down your bids 

and take your money 

for your hearts’ desires 

(but one man’s junk  

is still junk). 

Catch me if you can. 

 

I’m gonna run away 

to study English Lit, 

read the classics, 

quote Shakespeare and Rimbaud 

at cocktail parties 

over a glass of sherry 

with the tweed and briar set 

at the dean’s house 

on frosty Friday nights. 

Catch me if you can. 

 

But when I ran away 

I became a lawyer, 

a barrister and solicitor 

if you please, 

and it was a mistake 

from which it took 

half my adult life 

to fully recover 

after I flew the coop. 

Catch me if you can.

 

 

Gregg Norman is a Canadian poet living and writing in a lakeside cottage with his wife and a small dog who runs the place. His work has been placed with many international poetry journals and literary magazines. He has been nominated for Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize.