My life began in decades passed

Nearly seven if I’m not mistaken

My head was bowed and my eyes downcast

My future I thought forsaken

My crying eyes ran out of tears

Fists clenched in open defiance

No longer would I be controlled by my fears

It was up to my own self-reliance

Changes made came without tribute

Nor did I lay claim to rewards

As years flew by I became more astute

Laying waste to my demons that courage affords

Service to country and family raised

Subsequent careers tried and tested

I held little stock in being praised

My life finally became fully vested

A careless husband but a caring father

I strived to be a better man

My life in review was worth all the bother

It is what it is, I am who I am.

In my eyes, a mason’s gargoyle

Carved from stone and posed grotesque

A family loving and faithfully loyal

Turned me to putty, my demons wrest.

Our lives are marked by good and bad

I strived to be on the better side

I gave my world the best that I had

Someone, somewhere knows that I tried.

I celebrated those that mattered

Inspired by their love and trust in me

With lives of their own, mostly scattered

When you love someone, you set them free.

Time and distance set lives apart

Precious memories kept within the mind

It matters not to a tethered heart

Lives conjoined and forever entwined.

We come and go in the blink of an eye

A drop of water in oceans vast

It doesn’t matter how hard we try

We can’t escape our flawed past.

One last marker is yet to come

A morbid tribute carved in stone

I lived, I died and now I’m done

Here lies me… cold and alone.