To please the crowd

My hands are shaking,
There’s a flush out breaking.
I’m standing up here,
In the empty open, all alone.
The white washed walls glaring,
Every eye’s glazed in boredom.

My voice is cracking
While my toes curl up.
There’s laughter at the back,
I can hear the jeering
And someone sighs.

The few up in front,
The ones that might listen,
Are nodding slowly.
But still I’m terrified
And take solace in my page.

Now the very letters which
I once wrote so lovingly,
Are taunting.
And when I finish,
I sit down quickly.
My head is bowed and,
I’m just that face in the crowd.