Daddy please! Stay with me!
Don't fight in that war; we're already free!
They don't want you there, but I need you here.

Father, how many years has it been? Twenty?
Was losing the war worth losing me?
You didn't stay there, but you never came here.

Can one be hopeful without being a liar?
That line is as thin as the silk of a spider
Hope left glistening, like a drop of morning dew
Praying that the thread won't break too soon
Would a fly in the web find sunrise beautiful, too?

I vacuum the rug so it feels better to walk on the next day.
And now, I understand why all of your compliments come in the evening.

The end of an era
A life ill-lived
A story well told
The role to be passed
To the next lowest class
Just as the legends foretold

I feel sorry
For whatever you became each night
As your face grew lazy
And your words became hazy
I want to cry
For who had to wake up
In a bed that was made by somebody else
As the fight exhausted us both
Your body distorted
A trembling voice asking questions
To hear rehearsed answers again

“God, can you hear me?”
Such a childish plea.
“But God I’m your child, what did you expect to see”
Born unto demons, a demon you’ll be.

Grief lingers like a friend in the doorway, unable to say goodnight. So now I’m in a diner at 2 a.m., the coffee is getting cold
For the sake of conversations I had long ago.