The One
The Strong One
A character on silver screen can shine so brightly yet
On eve of torment’s final steps a man might slip away
When in the hospital, a home of sorrow lightly slept
The strong one rose to win the day and conquer death’s defense
She held her post there, by his side
A man with no mortal words
But an immortal vision rested there
Of life lived, strengthened yet
Some wondered how she could hold the line
How she ever slept
When he was heading straight forward
Toward untimely recompense
If you ever look inside the heart and soul
A vision
Once untold
Of strength, reborn a lion’s fold
Grew out of this romance
A time to grace
Would come soon
But for now, it was the time
For the strong one to appear
The Angry One
The swearing man
Sweating
Pacing round the floor
A vision of the battles his father fought once before
A dark unrested mind full of newfound terrors more
He’s scaring himself with his dark thoughts
A tower on his own
His friends thought he would isolate
But he’s landlocked by his soul
The angry one looks toward the strong one
And wondered how it was so
That in their grief they might find relief
In God’s celestial shore
A peace that rests, produces strength
In time, on bended knee
How could those prayers make effortless
The torment of his grief
But anger feels good
It feels right that it should be so
For injustice has been served
A memory for his foes
He feeds it
Coaxes it out of his soul
Because it’s his only feeling so far
And he doesn’t want to let it
He simply just can’t let it
Go
The angry one wants more
The Quiet One
When the strong one was believing
And the angry one was seething
The quiet one was resting by himself
He always knew his silence was
The leading attribute
To talk a little less was to secure his lonely quest
He pulled himself together, facing every sort of weather
To come and see, to witness the events
Pacing round the quiet room
Singing soft and lonely tunes
Wanting nothing but to say his last farewells
He couldn’t muster anything
Or cry in front of anyone
He held his tears for another quiet time
So when he said farewell that day
He drove himself, he cried away
From prying eyes that quantified his grief
For to analyze the quiet one
Loads up a loose and violent gun
Emotions charged beyond the world’s prescription
The Helpful One
Oh dear I know just how you feel
I’m sorry for your loss
He was such a good man
You’ve all paid such a cost
It isn't always what you wish they'd say
Accept them for what they are
Because they are the helpful one
A shoulder you can cry upon
Holding weight of grief, long-gone
With their well-intended words
The helpful one has books to read
When you can see through all your tears
It might take a lifetime yet
To rest in their advice
The strength, and anger, the quiet place
Will come and go with time
You’re never just one feeling
Never boiled down
No, never boiled down
To a single diagnosis or one mistake
Because forgiveness shows us how to let go
And the helpful one comes to show
That life moves on, no matter the season
The river flows
The Departed One
The departed one could just hold on to see his firstborn son
He ran to the one who abandoned him, encircled him in a hug
For the one who leaves is the one who has the most to lose, I think
To live only in the memory of the ones who didn’t sink
For silenced tales of lonely men, abandoned by their peers
Fall into a depressive state for these oppressive years
A time to think, a time to grieve, now gone without a thought
The lonely and departed one will never be forgot
On that bed surrounded by the hopes and dreams of men
The science that could save them now, the hope that they depend
So how can father take it with his old signature grin
A hint of wit, a light of jest, a hope for better things
That man, departed, is like a man restarted
Carrying life to everyone
Because in death we see the life we live is running faster still
We know there must be more to this
We come on bended knee
To the only one who could explain the departed one
And the joy he left in me