for friends who have been and will be

To my friends

We have all opened similar doors to come to this point today
Some of us are gone and we often wonder why
Some of us learned to cry, some to turn away
Some of us turned our backs when the other needed a hand
And some of us disappeared when the others couldn’t stand
We all came together inside a seal of approval
Inside a small envelope requiring a hasty removal
The letter inside read us our rights
Told us our wrongs, and disguised its true light
But these things still have had no effect
Of the true people we’ve met who give true respect
So look around at the people you know
Either tall, short, too fast, or too slow
You know the men and women whom have shaped your very soul
Well if you believe in the mysticism that makes reality kind of dull
Our friends and our family, whom we laugh and joke with
To the lovers and enemies that we’ve loved and fought with
This entire life that you live is just part
Of something that grows in more than just your own heart

We bump into each other and apologize or criticize to closed eyes
Because each mistake that’s made can’t make you realize the surprise
And as you feel you keep failing and can’t find the answers
Sometimes you feel like life makes you a dancer
Dancing to the tune of a pied piper through the valley
Hoping he doesn’t lead you to be alone in an alley
And with the wars you discourage, or encourage with rallies
No person alive can deny the final tallies
In situations when you can’t find your true direction
You think to yourself “what is it I’m missing?”
You look for answers to an uncomfortable disposition
And you slump in your chair and find a new position
And you feel like the conversation around you is going nowhere
And you wonder why it was your words that brought it there
Kind of like when you feel alone at night
Hoping that the light won’t wake you up in fright
Or maybe it’s just a dream your afraid of
As you lie awake thinking of what the day has been made of
Or maybe its routine that makes you more creative
Where it doesn’t matter when you find yourself getting paid off

The answer won’t be found in a top reading club
It won’t be found on an event’s ticket stub
It can’t be found in a book or a sonnet
Maybe it’s harder to find the more you dwell on it
Maybe it’s hard to find answers when you feel you don’t belong
Maybe it’s hard to tell someone you’re wrong
Maybe it’s hard to live in your shoes
Maybe it’s harder to live in someone else’s socks
And when you feel your head’s filled with rocks
You crave for childhood grandparent talks
You long for the feeling on moonlit walks
With the One you forgot when the siren called
Down on the shore where the ships all file in
A midnight swim with you and your kin
Later with friends drunk off of gin
You thought that very night “this is where it begins,
Where will it end? When will it stop?”
You laugh and join later at the coffee shop
Looking around at kids once your age
Thinking to yourself on another page
(Then you used to at least)
Feasting your mind on the world all around you
Trying hard not to let power pound and drown you
And you look up to hear that someone has found you
They looked in all the old spots, but now new air surrounds you
Laugh share a drink, a story, and a tale
Trying desperately hard not to let it get stale
But as time runs short, you feel you’re becoming more pale
And you part from your friend and promise to mail
But the mail never comes
And we often forget to write
Maybe those dreams will wake you at night

As you forget that which is true
You remember what’s right
And you grab at the sky in the middle of the night
You wake up relaxed and forget what it meant
But later that day, in the letter you sent
You say you can’t remember the last time you spoke
But you remember that time when you both were so broke
You couldn’t help but laugh and walk down the street near the river
And ignoring the cold as your hands started to shiver
It never mattered then
And you wonder why it does now
Sometimes you wonder if you should throw in the towel
But being disemboweled by a system misunderstood
Is often too much for people to do what they should
(Or shouldn’t)
No answer you seek can be found under the sheets
Be it a new person there, or your own two cold feet
Sometimes you wish that you could just go to sleep
But you get up and creep, and count all your sheep
Unable to reap the benefit of keep

You may find some trouble, you may find some fear
You may pray for more, you may not see clear
You may drink too much, eat too much
Talk too much, sleep too much
You may smoke too much, you may hope too much
You may find yourself depressed in a corner with Nothing else
But a thought in your head and a song in your mouth
You may find yourself spitting words that hold no Meaning
You may find yourself sweeping a road not needing Keeping
You may find awkward silence in a crowd of noise
You may find happiness watching children play with Toys
With pink for the girls, and blue for the boys
With black for destruction, and white for rejoicing
Power and fame remains a slow. painful. poisoning.

We all come together and join for excitement
Days go by leaving us asking where the light went
when asked of why he chose what he did
a great man shook his hand and his fist
his servants they served
his enemies they fell
but in his dying years he had no one to tell
the only one asking the question presented
was the very old man of which he represented
and he passed away a man he resented
because his mind was glued and cemented
the fire that burned in his final cremation
inspired his people to rebuild that great nation
it kept moving on until end it did see
and not one living soul within knew what to be

So be more than yourself, be this and be that
You sit on a bench and think this and think that
Believing the man with the rabbit in hat
You might not know what you really want and need
You might not know how to really succeed
You may not define your own race or your creed
But you will always know what your human deed
Means to you and the people you see all around
Because we all have a need be either lost or be found
So as you pass by, don’t ignore just a blink
Because what we share is more than just links
It’s the space in between that defines what they are
Some answers come close, and some answers stay far

Although we all may not suffer
And we all may not succeed
The single true judgment inside
Is on the life we truly lead:::