Veil - Raymond Hoffman

Veil I wear,

Feel my past creeping on me,

Damn all manic manifestations I had so far,

Facades showing their self-worth like skin that has been overexposed,

What happened to me in my twenties?

Must have been lost and scared,

Thrown into a hospital my freshman year,

Turning to bad habits,

A heroin user,

A whore,

From an angel to a hedonistic asshole,

But at least a good student,

The most functional unstable one out there,

And occasionally delusional,

Seeker of exploration and thrills,

Making a home on the other side of the globe,

A natural born ping pong ball,

Hate myself, love myself,

Ashamed and proud,

Miss the spirit of a nomad.

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Raymond Hoffman has a background in political science and Southeast Asian Studies. He has taught in China for many years and currently is a fifth grade teacher in the Midwest. Poetry writing has been used by him as a coping mechanism for bipolar disorder for over a decade now. Sylvia Plath has always been a great source of inspiration, as has been Albert Camus.