WOUNDED HEART

It was love at first sight
It’s crazy but it’s true
You are the one
So I set my cap at you

But for a reason I couldn’t tell
You withdrew inside your shell

Getting close to you
Is like stalking a deer
You run away
If I get too near

Who has hurt you so much?
That you flinch at my touch

I try to get closer
I see a chink of light
Then you slam the door
And take flight

Who has caused you such harm?
That you draw back in alarm

Let me unlock your heart
With my loving key
I will protect you
Let me close and you will see

I am not the man who harmed you
The love I feel for you is true

When I get too close
You turn away
You run for you life
But I’ll try another day

Please don’t lock yourself away
I will keep the hurt at bay

Don’t let him win
Don’t be beaten by the fear
Don’t run away to safety
Like a startled deer

Let me help you to love again
Let me show you love without pain

I will be patient in my love
I will wait if that’s alright
And give you time to heal
Then bring out into the light

NOT FADE AWAY

Big man
Strong man
Barrel chested
Smiling faced
Hearty man
Where have you gone?
I watched you get into that bed
A few short weeks ago
But you have disappeared
And I don’t know when you went

Your laughter was first to go
That fruity chuckle
That warmed and cheered
Fell silent first
Then your conversation
Once a source of knowledge
Wisdom and sardonic wit
Dried up like a drought stricken lake
Your sentences grew shorter
Disjointed and inarticulate
Until they were no more

Then you began to fade
Like a picture going out of focus
When you opened your eyes
And I looked in them
I saw no one looking back
The spark had gone
You had gone
When had you gone?
We didn’t say goodbye

As I looked at the withering shell
In its unconscious state
I heard the groans, as the pain cut deep
Through the morphine
In the slow agonizing transition
From man to corpse
I cannot pick the moment
At which you were no more
But it was days before rather than hours
When the essential you left
When that which made you, you, was no more
I hoped you were not in there
Suffering
Dying by inches
God I hoped not

What savages we are
To inflict this end on a human being
We would not do it to our favourite pet
We would not treat a dog like this
Yet I let it happen to this man
What indignity
What inhumanity
What kind of son am I?

I will not go this way
I will not fade away
I will not vanish
Before my loved ones eyes
I will say my goodbyes
I will smile before I go
I will go on my termsI will go by my own hand

DYING OF THE LIGHT

On the table
The candle sputters
Flame flickers
Almost guttering
But does not die

At the table
A heart yearns
Tears form
As hope fades
She cries inside
At the table
A rhetorically thought
He’s not coming
How cruel
She dies inside

At home
Her heart aches
Her spirit breaks
She drains the glass
And she dies