I need a name

The boy has died

His fantastical needs and shipwreck dreams have faded past slumber 

The clock hands, for nearly a minute, came to rest and now turn back 

Ticking louder, striking ominously 

Before it's too late

I need a name

That can be echoed off canyon walls

Carried along riverbeds

And drifted out to sea

You see, I was salt once

A crystalline palace in the palm of your hand 

Fragile if you knew you were crushing me

But now I'm stone, rounded by the currents of reality and tumbled along eroding shorelines of exposed and twisted mangrove roots

Little hairs being stripped bare and beaten into submission 

Left behind, it's the salt that shines, in the sun

I was a force once but I'm not the same

I need a name

I was written next you

I was called out loud and had taken vows 

Little voices could cry, daddy 

Now they cry

They shout only a void 

A hole 

I feel like a wishing well that's ashamed of the scam and if there were a way I could give all those wishes back, I would 

But I'm empty

I'm silent 

Nothing

I need a name

A name that is proud

That says I believe what I'm talking about, that I've seen enough of this world and can convince two little girls that the world is their oyster 

And they are the shiny pearls 

But who am I 

Who am I to make such grand statements 

Who am I to flip coins back into the pockets of daydreamers or take offense when life made no sense and you changed your name

Who am I, a stone, dead weight whose spent enough time on the beaches of fate a saw firsthand that we're all losing ground at an alarming rate

Who am I 

I need a name

Im full from surviving the night,

in hallways connecting lonely breath,

waged war within caverns of mind

and failed again all my imagined tests,

but I've shattered the backs of shadows,

made beautiful ribbons from litter,

walked alleys their building tomorrow, and

broke glass when she ran out of glitter

I talk of dying because it's in style,

we all enjoy wording, arranged for the wounding

and scars never heal for a while,

we rarely feel worthy, of pens leaking mercy

so eulogies still make us smile :)

When we've taken vengeance on our enemies

When they have taken vengeance on us

When the battlements that used to be our homes crumble

When the world is darker and much less humble

Then we have truly lost our way

We will have lost the right to rule any day

Our simple pleasures will be lost

Our children taught to be soldiers at what cost

Our skies will darken with machines of war

The ground will bleed under military law

And we will have realised much too late

That war was the only means to seal our fate

Understanding is what is needed now

Empathy explained to those who don't know how

The ones who have never been shown any compassion

Who can only hate in measured fractions

Some people don't understand how good life can be

They can't relate to the simple joys of family

So we must show them how

Educate them with a new vow

That human life is sacred and should be revered

Murder, rape, terror and fear are seeds of destruction

They are the reckless paving stones to our undoing

And until we stop the process of an eye for an eye for an eye for an eye

The peace of our world will always be denied...

How naive we are to think this can end with more death

More terror, more casualties and regret until no-ones left

Except the grieving and angry of the innocent forsaken

Who will then perpetuate the cycle of the broken

And rise to fight in the names of the deceased

Now blinkered and in rage they no longer want their war to cease

They no longer listen to innocence, they no longer see reason

On all contents they continue to fight through the blood of the seasons

And we begin to disintegrate amongst the grief and the wreckage of our lives

Our world becomes so inhospitable that no one survives

And if by chance that we do

Would this be a life that you would want for you?...

Revolt...

Copyright Notice © Richard Withey. All rights reserved.

- My condolences and thoughts go out to all the people who have suffered needlessly for any war, for any act of terror (and greed) in any time.