Long Shadows

Long Shadows            May 12, 2017

I rode the 103

The day I could hardly breathe

Inching along a valley

Surrounded by mountains

Of concrete and steel.

Useless as a dirty Kleenex

Discarded in the trash

Beneath towering glaciers

Of reflective glass.

Nothing and no one

The strangers that I saw

In front and behind

Heading home

In tin cans.

Me, just an ant crushed

Along the way

Nothing but an afterthought

My guts in my mouth

And all washed away.

I remembered other days

When I had walked the streets

In a different universe

Split off

And blown away.

Squeezed through a pin point

I had lost my world

A stranger in a strange land

Alien and cruel.

The weight of the sun

Suffocating my lungs

As I sat in my seat

Sacrificed for nothing

And sold out for fun.

Gone were the shops

And vanished were the cafes

Nothing but half remembered dust

Dried up and disappeared.

Sometimes I wonder

What all of it was for

All that I gave up

And all that I lost.

No one wants to lose

But in the end

We lose it all

Shedding our skin

Like it never happened at all.

Sometimes we get a glimpse

But it is gone

Before we can grasp

The incalculable loss

Of what was

And might have been. 

If for everything

There is a reason

Then this should be great

My treasure in heaven

And my love ten times

Ten thousand. 

I pray I see you there

But we shall also,

Have it here

A new world

And a kingdom

Of everlasting joy.

Never give up

And never give in

Even in the shadows

Insurmountably long.

We shall yet, emerge

Through the eye

Right side up.