Molding a Mind

One date six decades ago
shaped my life, my thinking, my future.
The day a nine-year-old me
moved from the only home I knew,
from friends, playmates, Brownies,
church buddies to a small town
so small the other fourth graders
had been together three years
and everybody seemed to know
all the people and remember every name...
but me. I got there at summer's start
and commiserated,
the attitude calcifying
and on graduation
with leadership positions
in many organizations,
I felt unloved, unfriended,
alone. And I had learned
to compensate with food,
sugar!, and self-pity.
But there's hope for the hopeless
when you learn to sort it out
and end the reliance on crutches.