To Be Like Him

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Like me
Love me
Validate me
Tell me that
I am worthy
Tell me that
I deserve respect,
Compassion,
Love.

I would turn
To the masses,
My tongue still
And yet, I implore
Them, them all.

Like me
Love me
Validate me
Tell me that
I am worthy
Tell me that
I deserve respect,
Compassion,
Love.

They would
Pay me no mind
As they march by,
The same mantra
Repeating in their minds.

Like us
Love us
Validate us
Tell us that
We are worthy
Tell us that
We deserve respect,
Compassion,
Love.

Then in the distance
I would see him,
Crimson in a tide
Of gray.

He was different
He did not want
The approval of
Others. He did not
Want our validation
And it was
Because of this....

We liked him
We loved him
We thought that
He was worthy
We thought that
He deserved
Our respect
Our compassion
Our love.

All the things
We wanted and
All the things
He didn't need.

If only
To be like him.

A Day To Remember

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I saw tomorrow
Through the wispy
Clouds of today
And every time
I reached forward
To grasp it,
It dissolved
Into today.

That is
Until the day
I met Jessop,
A string bean
Of a man
Who wasted
Neither words
Nor penny.

A man who's
Deeds spoke
Louder and coarser
Than he could even
With lips and tongues.

In simple words
He told me
That tomorrow
Was never mine
To have.

In his estimation,
Tomorrow didn't exist
But a concept
In the minds of men
Who have never
Come to terms with
Today.

I scoffed at
His words as
Nothing more than
His personal,
Skewed view
Of the world.

Then I got
To thinking,
Which led me
To figuring that
Part of what
Jessop said made
Some kinda sense.

Tomorrow will never
Be had. I will
Never feel tomorrow's
Sun on my skin.

Even if tomorrow came,
It would not be
Called tomorrow,
It will be today.

No matter
How I turn it,
I can only control
Today.

So I put aside
My desire for tomorrow,
I rolled up my sleeves
And got to work
On today,
This day and
When the next comes,
I will work on
That, too.

I now work
On making today
A good day,
A day to remember.