What of The Old Man?

What of The Old Man?
Did he die with regret?
Has anybody heard
His story yet?

Did he die like countless others
Alone amidst the bright lights
The noise the hospital staff
Trying to make himself heard
But drowning in his empty cries
Already a Ghost
Confined to his bed
Ignored, dejected
But not dead
Not yet

No visitors
Materialising round his bed
Memories fading
Regrets circling
No help forthcoming

Too late now
For second chances
If only he’d known
Before time had flown
That he should have grasped life
Where he stood
If only
He really wished he could
Have got up
Have lived the life
Of his Dreams
But now he fades in silent screams

The Old Man
Was a decent Man
Blessed with good looks
A kind heart
And many talents
Wasted

How did it come to this?
That he was in a Ghost Ward
Filled with Tortured Lost Souls
He should have known
To set some goals

Life took him
Swooped on him
Like it takes all young men
Working to get nowhere fast
To fit society’s expectations
Till their final gasp
Even now at the end
There in pressed pyjamas
Still trying to be respectable
His retirement watch ticking to
His final breath

The young boy was bright
And filled with hope
He followed others
Like he thought he should
The young man
Met a young woman
Once Upon a Time
But for the man
Life brought many
Responsibilities to shoulder
They took precedence
Soon his true identity was lost
Covered in layers of conformity
In the Hollow Holographic image
Of what a man should be
Hollowed eyes, hollowed soul
Many disappointments followed
Happy times too
Though tainted with a creeping feeling
He was losing himself

Sometimes the Warrior in him rose up
An inner fire was ignited
He began to embrace his talents
Dream wild dreams of travel
But he had to keep being a Work Horse
For a man must carry others
Only to lose himself
If he doesn’t
Then he’s a loser
By society’s standards
He found the work
It kept him going
Though he never found
His True Vocation

Still those that knew him
Knew he was a Good Soul
And he would end up in a
Good Place
When all the Suffering was over
The Pain and Anguish
They didn’t want to see
Because it would only
Remind them
How fragile
Humans are

There was no one there
To wish him Goodbye
As life isolates people in their
Later years
He Died Alone
In Silent Tears

What of The Old Man?
Does anyone visit his grave?
Does he have one?
Life is wasted on the Youth
They say
One only values it when
Death comes staring
Sometimes you feel most alive
When you’re most near Death
A Second Chance
Within your frail grasp

A Golden Ticket
Just out of Reach
The next journey
Isn’t one he will experience
Here
On Earth
His Place of Birth

All he hopes for now
Is a Golden Ladder
To take him away
From the horror

What of The Old Man?
His hospital bed is empty
Replaced with another
Sorrowful Soul
The Veil of Tears
Carefully Hidden
By the Bright Lights
Of The Material World
With all of it’s distractions
Distracting People
From themselves
Till they find themselves
Alone in death

The Old Man
Was very afraid
Not of Death
That comes to all
But of Life
The Old Man
Was afraid
He’d never really lived
Not the way he wanted to
And that Killed him
Inside

So his later years
Were Zombie Years
And now he’s gone
Just a Statistic
Like so many gone before
And so many that will follow
You need to grasp life
Where you are
So you don’t end up
Alone and Hollow
Like the Hollow Man
Once so filled with Hope
And Dreams

Life took him
He didn’t harness life
If he had
His Death
Bad as it was
Wouldn’t have been so sad
Spending his very last moments
Regretting the life that he never had

But his Heart was pure
And those that remembered him
Felt his pain
He touched many souls
Yet he died alone
Life is but a fleeting thing
Gone in the flap of a Butterfly’s wing

What of The Old Man?
And those like him?
We can only
Wish their Souls
Rest in Peace
Good People
With Good Hearts
Broken by a System
That doesn’t have
Their Best Interests
At Heart

Chained to the System
Till Death do they Part
Wired to a Machine
Life was but a Dream
Dying in a conventional way
Still afraid to take control
Too weak to stand up
Too weak to say no
Gone to the place
Where all will go

The old man wasn’t always so old
The young boy in him
Always did as he was told
He rose up to bid his life Goodbye
And the Seasons of his Life
Flashed by
In the blink of an eye

Rest in Peace
Old Man
Young Man
Boy
Your Soul is Ageless
But Life goes on

A young man stared in numbness
Looking through the misty glass
Helpless as if turned to stone
As the Old Man had already passed
He couldn’t speak to him
He couldn’t take his hand
All he could do was look
As the old man had breathed his last

The young man’s Sorrow filled the air
Knowing that the old man had died
Thinking that no one cared
With no one at his side
All those words just left unsaid
That might have brought him comfort
That might have brought him light
From the dark thoughts in his head

The young man fled in a
Flood of Tears
And vowed to
Live with no more Fear
He’d live his life before he died
He wasn’t going to die inside
And go the way the old man went
In that awful bed
Just filled with dread

He’d live such a full life
That Death when it came
Would come quick
So he wouldn’t die alone and sick
Imprisoned in a hospitals walls
Where nobody visits and nobody calls

He got to the old man too late
But he learned
That he could not be
That man with the Hollow Eyes
Dead inside
He saw the Face of Death through the Glass
He had to make each moment last

What of The Old Man?
One Young Man
Cried for his Soul
Gave him a decent Burial
Keeps him Memory close
Every Day
He’s going to tell his story
The Hollow Man
Touched many Hearts
With his selfless ways
He didn’t know it when he languished
In the hospital bed
That fragments of his life
Would be painted in words after his death

When his Son told another
How he’d lost his Dear Father
As she Listened with Tears
Feeling his Pain
On a Dark Day
Bleakest November
Just Pouring with Rain

By Anne-Marie at SupernaturalHippie.com

This poem is by Anne-Marie at SupernaturalHippie.com. (No unauthorised reproduction without prior consent.)