Dotty Holcomb Doherty

MAKE THEM WONDER

Don't hide
your face
from staring eyes
Don't hide
Go bold
into this world
Go laughing
Make them wonder
how one so scarred
can find such joy
Go seeking
with your one dim eye
the first red leaf
the last ripe tomato
Life, your life
needs you
right now
Go bold
Go laughing
Don't hide
Don't hide.

Dotty Holcomb Doherty began writing when multiple sclerosis led to her retirement from teaching biology. Her poems, essays and feature stories have appeared in Maryland's Bay Weekly and What's Up magazines, and in The Healing Muse. She dedicates this poem to Janet who fought adenoid cystic carcinoma for twenty years.