Encrypted

Encrypted by Robert MacManus 3/22/2012


Some things you see coming
As they grow larger in the horizon
Getting bigger and bigger
Until it happens
Surprising no one.

Other things you guess Or maybe its just a hunch
The kind of things that make you suspicious
And chew on your gut
A feeling that you just can't shake
That sticks in your mind

But other things defy all logic
And leave you in disbelief
Turning everything upside down
Without explanation.

They happen while you were sleeping
Or they happen in a split second
Senseless dumb and horrifying
Seldom good and seldom fair.

The good are taken
And innocent slaughtered
Either by insanity
Or venomous hatred.

It is in those moments
That you can see
That the world is unhinged
And teeters off its axis
Spinning out of control.

And time takes on an extra heaviness
That weighs down our spirits
Crushing us
Until we don’t care.

Desensitized to the terror
And accepting of tyranny
Holed up
In front of a television.

We try to protect ourselves
But accepting the status quo
Thinking that everything will be ok
And that someone else
Will make it right.

We talk about love
But cheapen it
And throw it away
Always looking for door number three
Something better or more interesting.

We try on hobbies and ideas
Or maybe even religion
But always throw them away
Like a pair of pants
That we didn’t like.

When things take time
We lose our interest
Thinking that there must be something
To fill the emptiness inside.

But all we do
Is waste our efforts
And get tangled in our mistakes
Trapped by our selfishness
In a sticky mass of mistakes.

Held in place for the spider
To come and eat as he pleases
Sucking out our blood
Dead as dead can be.

I too, have made mistakes
Oh yes, I have made a few
Ending up far from where I started
And twice as lost as before.

Falling further behind
With every single mistake
And suffering needlessly
All along the way.

Tragedy happens
And so also does betrayal
But no man is without sin
So we pack up our heartaches
And drink them away.

I have come so far
Only to fall down again
But at least now I know
Better late than never.

So I write this like a letter
And I shall send it out
Unknown and nameless
Like a message in a bottle
Drifting out to sea.

Once my daughter and I
Wrote a prayer on a balloon
Then we stood out in the front yard
And let it go.

Watching it as long as we could
As it rose higher and higher
Becoming ever smaller in the sky
Until it disappeared.

Let this be like a prayer
And let this show my heart
A letter to God
On a calm gray morning.

Thanks for loving me
And thanks for remembering me
Thanks for the gift
And the light.

All these things
That have happened
I know were for my good
Even the tragic
And even the hard.

I have bundled them, up in my heart
And now I let them go
Sending them upwards
For you to solve.

You know all my faults
And you know all my thoughts
You knew me all along
But loved me anyway.