John Lawless Poet Free verse

They Stood - We Stood -Together

They say “You are only as strong
as the person standing beside you.”

There have been times when that thought…
frightened me, for the person standing
beside me……..was……..well……
let’s just say….. I didn’t choose to stand
beside them.

Perhaps it was a strange twist of fate,
you know…..a karmic curve ball – 
and I was supposed to be the strong one.

I have been in rooms full of people,
all standing beside one another,
and thought: “We’re all screwed”,
“look at this collection of inbred inhumanity.”

I now know – sadly – they were thinking
the same thing.  No one asked for a show
of hands as to who the “strong” ones were,
no “leader” T-shirts labeled them, no super
hero music played as they entered the room.

They were there – throughout my life –
those ubiquitous stalwarts, friends,
mentors, speed bumps, guideposts,
showing up to stand beside me
even when I didn’t know why they
were there.

I know now – why they were there –
coincidence, chance, providence,
the kindness of a humorous god,
the gift of serendipity, the luck of the draw.

I know now why I was there, why we were there.
We are only as strong as the person standing beside us
and the person standing beside them and the person standing……..
Well, anyway, I’m proud to be counted among this
collection of screwed up, inbred, inhumanity.
It is a pleasure to stand with you all.

John G. Lawless
1/17/2015

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Funom Makama February 6, 2015 at 6:56 AM You write graciously and wonderfully. Its blissful coming across this piece. There's nothing more than I can say other than, this is simply awesome and great

Isaiah Zerbst January 21, 2015 at 11:52 AM I suppose it sometimes takes a person we would think of as screwed up to be strong when an ordinary person would not.

Scott Thirtyseven January 19, 2015 at 9:32 AM I'm on a night duty tonight, and already I've had one back handed compliment- "I didn't expect such excellence from you". Has this poem just given me another? Te he he.