Empty Streets

I walk alone
Along empty streets
Full of people
That I meet,
Transparent,
Unknowing,
Worse,
Not wanting to know.

As a child kneels
By bed at night
And asks
In innocent delight
To please bless
"mummy and daddy dear"
And not to fear
As I embrace the meaning
That engulfs us all
And I fall
This youthful night
As shadows crawl-
What happened along the way?

If innocence is lost
On youth,
Where then does
Hope for the aged come in?
I am now too old for games
For calling names,
My thoughts are as plain
As my wrinkling face,
Spider webs
And crows eyes
And I despise not
What time has done to me
But what I have done to time
As I yearn
To be
That little boy again.

Over’s please,
Simon Says,
No, mother may I?

God, no.
Not again,
Once is enough,
I’m not that tough
To not only live twice,
Once more over,
I can’t endure the firs
Please!
Don’t make it worse.

A poet sees beauty,
A child sees hope,
A bride sees a future,
An old man visions rest,
God preaches love
And life up above;
Life promises me nothing
But heartache and pain,
And I am so tired
Of standing
In the rain.

At times the sun
Used to break through
And cast golden rays,
Enough for me to bask
In the beauty of it all,
But I look back
Only to recall
That those clouded visions
Of tiresome youth
And lying truth
With shattered dreams
Of growing hope
Were never there
From the start-
Be still!
My heart!

The mind,
A terrible thing to waste,
Doesn’t seem to care
If it can readily paste
A stigma upon the flesh
And my crown of thorns
As I try best
To distance myself
From the hurt and pain,
Knowing It’s life I distain
As I walk in the rain
On empty streets
Crowded with those that see not,
Hear nothing,
Never question
That faded façade
Of the absurdity of it all
As I crawl
My cross
To hard to bare
Why do you stare?
Why don’t you care?

Is this as it is meant to be?
Is this all there is I see?
God have mercy
Upon me!
Then some cruel hoax
Upon my soul
That never has belonged
Upon this sphere
Filled with fear
I am stranger walking here
Where will
I ever
Belong?

Nighttime silence
Echoes loudly
In the still air
Now heavy with dew
As the world wakes up
So I can sleep
For someone,
(I appointed I,)
Must stand diligent
At night
To guard against those that come
Dancing in the shadows of streetlamps lit
With echo of dancing flies
Committing mass suicide
In futile splendor as bats cascade
And flitter about,
Make sure one doesn’t
Land in your hair,
But
Despair
Not my child
But sleep while one can
For you soon approach that age
Past innocence
As life and strife
Combine
To beat you away
Until that day
Of pulp fiction
When blessed rest comes
When it matters not,
Only that
It is too late
As we reach our fate,
Not before a golden gate
But lying in the sod
From whence we came,
Waiting,
Watching,
As worms crawl up my nose
And bugs eat my eyes
So I no longer cry,
But then,
What sound does the dead
Really make
When the living can
No longer take
This gross mistake
Called life
And the agony of living
That no one seems to question
By merely taking their place
Among
The human race,
My God!
Such a gross disgrace
To what just might have been
Now tossed blindly in the wind
As the golden ray
Comes my way
From an early morning sun
Filled with
Promises.
Hopes,
And fun
To those that with
Open arms to heaven bent
Visions of hope
Peace
And laughter
That are sent
That line the streets with gold,
(Or so I’m told)
But shall never see
For it is always me
That comfort never be
Laid upon my mind
Of living to be free
When it is life itself
That tortures me.

And I scream
In agony
On empty streets
Of hollow minds
Inching along the way
Of fleeting paths
On yet another day
God,
Why are they so happy?