Prided himself on invulnerability

An impervious monolith  

Covered with impenetrable armor

Until the strike, clash, clang

Brought down low to a knee

Bloodied, blinded, wounded

Armor shattered, divided

Fully exposed to the blows

Stronger somehow, someway

Resolve is his new defense

Long car ride crushed in the back middle seat
Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds playing on the radio
Sea air letting us know we were getting closer
Sand slowly replacing the grass along the highway
The excitement of reaching dangerous Suicide Alley
And turning up Sloop John B when it finally comes on
I remember it all so clearly as if this morning
A happy family on their yearly odyssey to the beach
Growing boys unknowing the trials that lay ahead
That these innocent times could never truly last
Take me to Nauset, my favorite lighthouse
And live through paintings that will never be added to
As each summer slowly trickles the souls in the car
Dwindling and diminishing to an inevitable end
And then renewed as a new core grows
As I introduce new lives to the majestic Highland
And round the large hook passed by Pilgrims
Brave the breaks, cracks, and scars of a full life
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off one more time
Make the trek you know like the back of your hand
One less in the car, one more to come someday

Below is a comprehensive list
Of the woman I want, but just the gist

Smarter than me isn’t saying much
And not too much, but just a touch

So beautiful that she leaves me defenseless
It’s kind of important to me, I must confess

It would be great if she had a really nice job
So she doesn’t pick a bank for me to rob

Oh and of course I want her to be very funny
I’d even be okay if she was just super punny

She needs to care about me and my interests
Which are not all that numerous, I like my rest

The last thing is she needs to be my best friend
I want the type of relationship that never ends

Blackest night in a stormy sea
I cannot keep my feet
The tempest has overwhelmed
And I am so lost, adrift

The cold rain grips me like a vise
The ocean will take me
The end is nigh, a certainty now
Say my own last rites

Blinded by snow and ice, breathless
Hurricane unrelenting
And my faith has failed me finally
Then your light, your light

Guide me, shelter me with your beam
Bring me home, my sentinel
Your lone ray is my hope renewed
My last salvation from ruin

I had hoped to bring you a keeper
The cyclone led me astray
I will be your guardian one day soon
But today you are my beacon

The feeling only comes
When the night advances
When the light extinguishes
When my mind weakens
When actions don’t matter
When the whispers start
When I want to break
When I want the light to flash
I need to remember
Place it where it belongs
Give it to those worthy
Keep the faith
And fear no more

It was such a strange thing as a young boy
To make your way with an eye to the future
To think about adulthood with the eyes of a child
And to set a path without knowing the cost

And the way life makes these choices more stark
Like when you bury your father as a teenager
Decide to put on a uniform before you can drink
Sent to war before you know yourself truly

You suffer through a limbo of loneliness and haze
Numb your pain with the medicine they give you
Promise that you are okay and couldn’t be better
Just in the process of healing but falling deeper

Pick yourself up and brush yourself off
Start a new life in the family you always knew
Pretend you have it all figured out now
And start that family you wanted from day one

Plunge into something you swore was right
Take your vow and shut your mouth
Turn off the voice that says it’s not
Enter into a state of stasis devoid of passion

From your greatest mistake your greatest gift
A little girl who is too much all her own
But not free of the mistakes you already made
Now sentenced to a life you never wanted for her

The death of a love you swore to uphold
Ripped from your fingers and no chance to hold
The betrayal from the one you didn’t trust fully
Setting you on a road all your own again

Took 37 years to find the one you thought
Now dust yourself and start all over
Add another perfect soul to the ledger
Because it’s all a waste if she’s not loved

A vision of the sand and waves endlessly
Unending sky and sundown magenta

The slow rock of the chair and me in the breeze
A glance to my right and vacant stare to infinity

My mistake left me here to contemplate fate
Of a solitary life without the love of another

I yearn for one who can see through my scarred form
Unconditionally accept the soul which rests inside

Will you stay here and be all I ever needed?
Will you fill this empty chair here, love?