For a smile
Walking, Stumbling, Getting back up, Following the setting sun, And the rising moon, Your pain keeps me going... I shake off the dust, I get washed off by the rain, Dried up by the wind, You memory sustaining me, I journey, Through the heart of a time that will never come back, A wooden bench that rotted many seasons ago, To the valley that has been swept away, By floods that have already met the sea, Now covered by the snows of reflection, And the sands of forgetfulness, Your pain keeps me going because I need to reach that place, Where you and I once sat together under a cloud covered sky, On a fall evening, And promised to never say goodbye, If the heavens ever forced us to part, To sail across the seas to chase imposed destinies, We’d remember that valley, That cloud covered moon, That fall, So that if ever there comes a time, When we are surrounded by nothing but the selfishness of others, When all felt lost, Except the pains we imparted on each other’s hearts, We’d follow that pain back to where we once sat, And made foolish promises that only 18 year olds think they can keep… I’m journeying to where the wood of that bench was consumed by worms, To remind myself that I don’t have you anymore… That I never will again… That even the precious few images of you that I have burnt in my mind, Too, are fading with every new White hair I find in my sink… I want to be there again, I’ll clutch the dried grass in my hands, And I’ll scream at that cloudless sky again until my throat bleeds or the clouds part to reveal the moon, So I can tell it that there is nothing left to lose, Nothing since the last time I saw you wipe your tears away, And told me to smile… I’ll carry that smile back to where the demons of hatred and resentment await me, And I’ll tell them to give it their best shot, Because they may defeat me, But your pain that I carry inside of me, Will defeat them so that they, too, become part of a forgotten pledge, That once kept a broken man from falling apart.