Now, I'm No One

Once, I was something—a name, a face, A force in the world, moving with grace. I built and I bridged, I lifted and led, A life filled with purpose, a life fully fed. But now, I’m no one, a shadow’s faint line, The echoes of work, of projects once mine. Friends who once gathered now drift far away, Gone like the years, the night, and the day. It’s not easy, growing old and gray, Less days ahead than those slipped away. The strength I once held now fades in the dusk, With more to get done, and less I can trust. The fame and fortune I chased as a prize, Have faded like stars in the morning skies. Superficial and fleeting, not as I dreamed, Just glimmers of gold where emptiness gleamed. My wife, my dear partner, she left me in time, Her laugh, her love, her warmth in decline. Our children are grown, strangers, they seem, Scattered like leaves in someone else’s dream. The dogs that once lingered close by my side Have followed their paths to a place I can't find. Empty and silent, the house that was home, Now hollowed with memories, I wander alone. Each day is mostly sadness, a haze, Filled with the echoes of faraway days— The things we once took for granted and light, Now cherished so dearly in the face of our plight. I used to be someone; now, I just am, A face in the mirror, gray and bland. A retired, forgotten old man, they say, Who dithers the hours and drifts through the day. Yet there’s wisdom I hold, though no one may see, In the spaces I’ve lived, in the work that was me. The laughter, the struggle, the love, and the loss, Each scar, each line—they’ve all come at a cost. For now, I’m no one, a whisper, a breath, A life that was full, now nearing its death. But the silence that holds me, it speaks just the same, Of a life once remembered, of a once-spoken name.