I AM SCARED
TO LOOK AT
MY NAKED BODY
IN THE MIRROR

"forever isn't real," I tell the boy
who thought we would last forever

Faces Broken,
Words unspoken.
Never ending,
The truth is bending.
You keep lying,
My soul is dying.

This is just to say,
I drove to the cemetery and visited your grave today.

A tear rolled slowly down my cheek
And in my legs, I grew weak.

In the air, I felt the warm breeze,
And I knew that you were watching me kneel upon my knees.

The clouds rolled away and the sun kissed my face,
I was used to distance, but this was too much space.

I ask for forgiveness for being such a wreck,
As I touch the dog tags that now hang around my neck

There was no way that I could understand
Why I was left holding a folded triangle flag within my hand.

I cursed the war that brought ruin to my life,
I cursed the war for claiming my wife.

I see you, standing so humble in the light of success.
Yet this very gleam can also be blinding.
You only see the shadows left behind,
hiding in the crevices of your imperfections.
Deeper
             and
                     deeper you descend,
until your glorious light is a mere dot in the distance.
And in that horrid pit you forget that you belonged
not in the shadows, but in your own brilliance.
Extending my hand, I call down to you,
"Climb back to the wonderful glimmer that you see in the distance."




But from below you shake your head, seemingly content in your darkness,
believing you are unworthy of the light that you yourself created.
Inwardly I weep, to see how you've forsaken yourself, thinking the light is mine,
It is not!
and never shall I rest, until you climb out to see your own wonder...............

Even now.... I remain awake..... quest unfinished.... soul tiring..... but....
              Continue
                               I  
                                  must.
And so I shall.

The sun has fallen beyond the horizon as night ushers in the darkness.
You sit alone, cloaked in the weak glow of the nearby lamp.
                                                           ­                                                                 ­         When blackness beckons.
Your small world of light is oppressed by the surrounding shadows.
Thoughts grow bleak, the want for sleep replaced with swelling fear.
                                                           ­                                                                 ­                     As sadness lingers.
This lonely siege from the horrors of the void seems without end.
Never in this life have you been so lost, so impossibly alone.
                                                          ­                                                                 ­                           I harbor hope.
For this night, as any other, is always darkest before the dawn.
Until the glow of early morning shines, I will stand by you.
                                                            ­                                                                 ­                   Through this pain.