I Have Been Two People

I HAVE BEEN TWO PEOPLE I have been two people, maybe more, devised ways to meander through the lives of those I’ve touched. These encounters have not all been pleasant. I have been defender, protector, anger’s liaison, pained deflector of the sanctimonious rhetoric of the shameless. I have been lover, consort, friend, mentor, comforter and comforted, stood strong in the face of weakness, my own and others. I carry the beatings of life’s whipping post, lashes applied in my youth, consequences of lasher’s lack of conscience. I have become a divided house that must stand alone. I have cowered courageously, stood defiant in cowardice. I am the hard muscled sentinel, sharp eyed searcher, scanning for the signs of evil’s stealth. I am the hands that hold a baby’s breath, the eyes that see not what might be, but what is, the voice that hums a gentle song of peace. I am the steadying shoulder for the old to lean on, the unknown snow shoveler in the night, the song of comfort in an old man’s dreams. “I have looked at life from both sides”, enjoyed loves clouds and rain, I have been two people, maybe more. John G. Lawless 7/23/2014 contest – Both Sides Now sponsor – Alfred Vassallo