Bernadette Langer | + Follow Poet |
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I Saw a Young Man Die Today

I saw a young man die today, 
but no one stopped to stare. 
Unnoticed it seems was he, 
except in a mirrored glare. 

The weight of the world had taken, 
a toll he couldn't afford to pay. 
All that he once was inside, 
slipped away, on that fateful day. 

He couldn't stop the cries, 
that bled into his soul. 
Couldn't fill the emptiness, 
nor warm the icy cold. 

I stood and helplessly watched, 
as silence filled the air. 
In eyes once so blue with dreams, 
now seeped only fear.

Many hands had held the knife, 
many smiles replaced concern. 
His youthful life ebbed away, 
still no one was there to mourn. 

His humanity was forsaken 
and hope had gone astray.
On each strand of burnished gold, 
now stood only gray. 

Yes today I saw a young man die 
and that young man was me. 
Now only an old man stands, 
in the mirror its all I see. 

For all my dreams have died, 
leaving only neglect and pain. 
The boy that I once was, 
has sung his last refrain. 

No one listened to my song, 
no one heard its melody of woe. 
People just passed me by, 
hurriedly going to and fro. 

What does one have to do, 
bleed upon the ground, 
even then, will there only be, 
footprints all around? 

They will walk right on by, 
or maybe straight on through. 
Not many in this forsaken world, 
care about the essence of me or you.

Wrapped up in their own cocoon, 
safely tucked right in. 
Living in their own reality, 
pretending there's no such sin. 

But the scars are recorded, 
in the deep lines upon my face. 
In the droop of fallen shoulders, 
and the lost aura of my grace.

With only tears falling silently, 
watering hearts of stone.
The answer finally came to me, 
and I found myself truly alone.

I could not pretend anymore 
and so I simply lay down and died. 
Deep inside all I should have been, 
is buried there right alongside.

Copyright © Bernadette Langer | Year Posted 2007

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