How to Play the Game

I stand on the fringe
Watching
Wishing I could play

I am not like the other boys
With their scabby elbows
Their rough and wonderful tough talk

Alone I stand
Afraid

Yesterday I tried to play
Strike three !!!
I left the field in shame
Hedged and fenced in by put-downs and name-calling

Now I cower beneath the pepper tree
Too angry to weep
yet hurting so deeply
Quietly hating and resenting them
Yet somehow yearning
Just to be a part

Is there no one to teach me how to play the game?