There are such sweet beginnings
And there are our bitter ends.
Decades roll and crash like tides;
We live, we love, we fall aside.
Cut deep the wounds we all inflict,
Lasts long the legacy of our shame.
Left behind those broken lives,
Lost in time the reasons why.
There is such hope in our beginnings
And this the comfort at our end.

Tom Lefort June 2023.

I expel smoke into the atmosphere
and think of all my ghosts this year.
I fumble the deck in search of fives
but still find the Jester half alive.
I stumble through old alleys
we used to go to, in search of songs.
But I do nothing right but fill valleys
with all of the right wrongs.
I absorb oaked *** into my veins
and felt hot tears in the rain.
All those moments — lost in time
the second you were no longer mine.

My past is like a storm cloud following me

Lightning strikes my loved ones
So all they see are my mistakes

Thunder rumbles loudly
So all I hear are my failures

Rain pours down on me
So I can not see clearly

The cloud trails my steps so I can never escape
So I relive my regrets

Harsh winds blow in my direction
So I can not move forward

And my storm cloud stays dark and grey
Above my head, my happiness at bay.

Her memory is the most painful thing I willingly endure because the thought of forgetting is even worse.

Decades of lifeless cold
follow a brief summer
The stage at the end,
practically a walk of shame
Many eyes turn away,
a few painfully blank
A mere shell of a former person,
Deformed by sins and their blame

It's such a miserable thing,
he can't be saved anymore.
He's been swallowed heart and mind
Into the valley of hurt and despair
Alas, just numbing the pain
doesn't make a person whole
He might as well be a sinner now
How do you even wash away stains from a soul?

I wanted to write books
But the words wouldn't come
So I put down my pen to sleep
I wanted to say something
But whatever I said
Had been said long before me
I wanted life to be fun
But I lost track of time
As money became the key
I wanted to find love
I thought that I would
But that hasn't worked out for me.

Tell people that I broke your heart
that I never loved you,
not really
not properly
not in the way you needed

Tell people I left you high and dry
that I could have stayed
that I could have tried

Tell people you were right
but I hope you can’t sleep at night

Tell people what you need to
but I hope the memories never leave your side

Tell people the lies you tell yourself
but I hope the regrets eat you up inside