Lost and Found Himself

By G. Dolan

He begrudgingly trudged around the lake,

Stopping to gaze at the ugliness of his reflection,
Regrets piled as high as his good intentions,
But emptiness absorbed all his being.

His melancholy became legendary in his mind,

And all the worlds’ weight descended upon him,
His footprints left depths of a man much heavier,
Yet his gait, that of a small child, was left behind.

He had grown accustomed to the utter loneliness,

And his visions were blurred by bad judgments,
His journey had left an indelible mark on his soul,
And his voice echoed in obscure time.

Bewilderment scraped deep wrinkles in his face,

And his life path was wooded with debris,
His thought pictures had always been radiant,
They sustained a magnitude of brilliance.

Yet today, those memories resided elsewhere,

Always appearing on the far side of the lake,
The more he hurried, the faster they scurried,
His mortality was as fading as a sneeze.

Floating face down crept into his thought process,

Self assured the hole he dug was desperately deep,
Brighter images kept trying to sneak in,
But the darkness defended him like a castle.

He screamed in silence through a howling wind,

And not a sound was heard the entire evening,
Clouds rushed forward and lightening crackled,
Far off thunder found his path inviting.

His body spent, his altered mind weakening,

Sadness and disparity had surrounded him,
His next move could suddenly become finality,
Yet an urge, neigh a transparent message arrived.

This took hold of him in a death embrace,

Far past understanding, his autopilot was instinct,
Years of societal oppression slipped its’ grasp,
He summoned an inner strength long since forgotten.
A long lost love appeared, one he hadn’t seen in eons,
The mirrored water showed of a young boy,
One with a smile and with ebullient joy in his eyes,
The image spoke and he heard only with his heart.

That day the man regressed, only to see his future,

Hours hastened by, leaving an ever so faint smile,
And the bright stars danced on the water,
The end and the beginning had met in the present.

Reinvigorated, he stretched his legs with a gallop,

Soon a soft wind was rustling through his hair,
His lungs crammed with fresh air and life,
He had gone in dead and came out very much alive.