I count my days
like petals torn from flowers,
soft and dying,
as cold rain
gathers in the gutters of forgotten hours.
I count them
those numbered breaths,
those sunsets swallowed whole,
mornings folded into mist,
every soft cloud
passing like a whispered ghost.
I count my days
as they slip beyond my grasp,
fading,
like echoes down a hall
where no one waits to listen.
Each moment seen,
each life I might’ve lived
gone.
Words I never spoke
lie heavy in the throat of silence.
I count the days
that passed me by while I slept,
as the world spun on
without me.
I count the days
since I lost my soul,
my reason,
since I gave away who I was
to please those
who never truly saw me.
Time moves forward,
a cruel illusion,
a godless god
a mental construct
more real than the dreams
I once held
like fragile glass.
Oh, the dreams I had...
like smoke now,
vanished,
off and gone
without ceremony.
They say:
“It’s never too late to begin again.”
But oh, if only that were true.
Time does not care.
It wounds, it walks on.
And here I lie
broken, sore,
facing the loss
of what I once held
and now have no more.
If I had known
what life truly was,
before it broke me,
I would have clung tighter
to each second.
Every moment gone
is a grave in the garden.
Every day
is one step closer
to what?
To less.
To silence.
To death.
I feel it in my marrow.
One day, I’ll vanish too.
And who will mourn?
I’ve walked alone
all my life,
an outsider
here,
but never truly part.
Love came,
and love went.
Loss slipped
through my fingertips
again
and again
and again.
My eyes have seen
the strangest things,
but never saw
that it would end like this
at the edge of myself.
The truth is:
you only have yourself.
Even love fades.
Even the closest
will drift,
or die,
and you
you will remain,
or be the one
to leave.
Alone.
Alone.
Yes
this has always
been my road.
Looking in
from the outside,
a silent witness
to a world
I was never truly
a part of.
Copyright Malcolm Gladwin
July 2025
I Count My Days