Me, In Verse

As I stand at the gateway of a New Year, I look all around and no one is near. Wondering why I am left, all the others gone, I shed a tear to myself, I'm the only one. I wonder still how my family did behave, Now I will take the question to my grave. Treated with scorn all my life, not knowing why, What kept me apart I will never know why. As a boy barely in my teens, it was plain to see, The writing was on the wall for me to see. I could have stayed at school, I was a good scholar, But I had to get away to where they couldn't follow. I needed some help, companionship and a trade, I found that the army would come to my aid. It did, I was happy, I had friends by the score, I had made the break, never to go back any more. All went well for my years in the service I had chose, Other places, other nations, I loved all of those. But as always from a dream one must awaken, In a distant land my spine got broken. The pain was so bad, but what came next was far worse, They were sending me back for my family to nurse. I tried to stall, but it was all in vain from the start, I was going with a broken back and a broken heart. My life in that faraway place I tried to end, My attempt was thwarted by a loving friend. This all happened in my distant past I must say, Through the love of my wife I am still here today. She picked me up from my self imposed gutter. All these years on, not a complaint did she utter. We have been together now for almost 50 years, Not without, I must add, a lot of sadness and tears. Life has been happy, sad and sometimes desperate too, But with God on our side we have seen it through. © Dave Timperley 10/11/2018