I - The Void

This poem was written in March of 2006 - I ended up putting in a sequence with 3 other poems, a sequence of darkness, healing and wanting to heal others.

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The Void

I'm here for the forgotten people
The ones who don't belong
The lonely, downtrodden, hungry and sick
the ones who might never embrace hope
but who need an embrace nonetheless

how can we sit in our throne cocoons
with suffering going on all around
and the tears of god washing up like waves
to lap at the edge of our castles of sand

is it not so much more firm and right
to venture out into the night
and light up the darkness with good intent
even if the light does flicker and fade?

i came back to myself the other day
on a rainy sidewalk, en route to class
with adult concerns, a childish mess
and saw a little worm crawling there

at first I thought I'd walk on by
and then I thought, "but who am I?"
I'm still the child who picked up worms
and threw them back in the grass to live

the childish mess is six feet tall
and there've been times I feel like I can only crawl
and cry at the computer
with my eyes shut tight
and typing by touch
right into the night

from whence do they come
the tears of today
I don't know where
it might be the weight that I carry inside

Thank god that the sun can shine through a void