The Poetry Marathon

Some

nights I

feel like top

dog. Others, I

feel like a mutt waiting in the alley

He was there

For almost forty years

Always heard but never seen.

Some might argue it was

The other way around.

He never brought balance

Or even much humor.

Yet we loved him still.

And now here he lies.

Always gone but never forgotten.

I’m almost at the end

And I can see the light.

I’m where I belong, beside my best friend

I’m almost at the end.

I know something’s coming, just around the bend.

And I know that I’ll be alright

I’m almost at the end

And I can see the light

I still remember my first foray.

It seems like it was only yesterday.

And I thought, how could somebody so divine

Be interested in a persona like mine?

It didn’t end the way I thought it would, needless to say

But I still think about her each & every day.

We can never be what we were before

but at least now I know when to walk out that door.

It was never easy

Growing up in the shadow

of the empire but it

toughened you up. It made

you strong, even when you

didn’t want to be and now

the first order is just some

cheap knockoff but it’s only

there to perpetuate the inevitable.

Everyday is a convention

You wake up, put on your monkey suit, and get cracking

And for what? To fit in? To get ahead?

Even if you could, why

should you have to conform

to the norms of society

when they’re completely arbitrary

in the first place?

It was unlike anything I could have ever imagined.

I never thought it would hit me that hard.

He was supposed to be there

But I should know by now that nothing ever goes as planned.

I never even got a chance to say my goodbyes.

It’s probably for the best.

I was never good at those anyway.

Despite the rain that day, I forewent the umbrella.

After everything, soaked clothes were the least of my concerns.

Watching them lower him down was the most painful thing I ever had to endure

But he’ll never know it.

I lingered long after everyone else had left.

I only wish he had the common courtesy to follow suit.

Now, here I stand two years later

with no idea how I made it this far without him.

Sometimes, I think about jumping in after him

but then I realize worrying doesn’t suit me.

I mean he brought us joy long before he took himself from us.

Why should now be any different?