An old man
Caught my eye,
Pulled me in
With just a sigh.
I sat on the bench,
Him on one side,
I on the other side,
Between us sat
Fifty years of experience.
He started to speak,
I started to listen.
Everyone's story should be heard,
Even if, by a stranger.
He told me
How he killed a woman,
The only woman he ever loved.
How he ripped out her heart.
Hacking away at her chest
With lies and infidelity,
Pulling out her heart
And leaving her for dead.
He had her heart,
He thought.
She will always be there
To love him,
He thought.
When all the other women
Treated him bad,
Lied to him,
Used him,
Broke him and his heart,
She would be there
To pick up the pieces.
But she wasn't.
She wasn't in the gutter
Where he left her,
Nursing a wound,
Missing a heart.
While he was gone,
A man found her
In the gutter.
He raised her up,
He revived her.
In her chest cavity,
A new heart grew,
A better heart,
A stronger heart.
And when it was fully grown,
She gave this new heart
To this man and in turn,
He gave her his.
I looked across
At the old man,
Tears wetted his cheeks.
He really loved her,
He just never loved her
The way she deserved
To be loved.
I got up,
Stretching my legs,
I patted his shoulder twice,
Then squeezed it once.
He nodded and
I walked away,
Allowing him to return
To his memories,
Washing his soul
In his tears.
I was like his woman,
I am like his woman.
I found a man
Who loves me the way
I deserved to be loved.
And unlike that old man,
I will live a life
With no regrets,
No sad memories, a life
Filled to the brim
With love.
12 comments:
really enjoyed this tale.... :)
ps really hard to work out the security captcha
Ah, regret.
I've a feeling many an old man lives with it.
This is a beautiful tale.
Leave the man to his woes. He had been through some tough times. But is he learning to make amends. Pray that he would as many others should! Nice write
Hank
nicely done. we all live with our regrets, some are just more painful
Mark
Oh those painful life lessons.
Glad she was wiser and has found true love.
I loved the reference to 50 fifty years of experience between us. Well done. Could picture this.
there is so much in those last two stanzas....so much like but...and that make all the difference...smiles.
Love the story you've told here, some hard lessons learned for sure. Wonderful!
Such bittersweet prose.
A wonderful parable, a wonderful way to tell a truth. Thank God for the possible paths that got away and the new growth that took their place.
An extreme tale, but cleverly led into through an everyday encounter and kept there with everyday allusions which we all could find, I'm sure.
It is so worthwhile to listen to other people's stories - the way to learn. It's a pity most of us want to tell rather than to listen.
Please could you turn off that horrid catchpa thing. Ok you get a bit more spam, but it's easily deleted.
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