Darren Mallett | + Follow Poet |
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The Chain - the Burden

I walked a road I had never seen, 
I wanted to see where I might end up; 
Or to find somewhere I might be happy.

Along the road, I stopped; I met a man.
His hair was rough, matted across his face,
And by his waist, a heavy chain did hang.

"Why carry this weight such distance?" I ask,
"What use is a burden heavy as such?"
But the man, he did not answer nor look.

I walked with him and watched him struggle; 
 Emphatic in every step of his woes.
And after some distance, the man he spoke. 

"I bear a link for each lie I have told- 
Increased then by the pound for each hurt soul. 
This burden I bear, this and nothing more."

I gaze at the chain and count twenty-one; 
From waist to the fissure trail on the ground. 
"Such remorse in man, never have I seen."

But the burdened man's face raised no higher; 
His horizons transfixed upon the trail.
Then the next moment, the fragile man fell.

To his side I rushed twice-fast in my stride, 
I eased him rear onto his tautened back
And swept his black, sweat-matted hair aside.

Here I peered into an ageing face
That I came to recognize as my own.
And those eyes; sad, cold, alone and glassy.

I took some water from my travel pouch
And touched it to those age old, pale, cracked lips; 
Remembering the lies he- I, carried.

I roused him to drink, urged him to my last 
But his sad face, in my hands, turns to ash,
And is carried off in a sudden breeze

Now racked by my guilt from a past I had
yet to commit, I drank my last and took
The chain. As I walked, the weight increased.

I stumble on, with this wretch at my waist;
Lose count of the minutes, hours, days and, nights;
Bearing my own, of yet fictional, sins.

"I bear a link for each lie I have told- 
Increased then by the pound for each hurt soul. 
This burden I bear, this and nothing more."



This poem is my acceptance that my past isn't perfect; I'm not a perfect 
person and no one in the world is. This poem is to remind me to deal with my 
wrong decisions and carry my cross for them, but also to remind me to keep 
the people I hurt to a minimum and never set out to intentionally hurt another 
person.

Copyright © Darren Mallett | Year Posted 2014

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