Erasure
The world rushes by me and the streets are empty
There is only me and the silence between my ears
The others have pushed forward, climbing the ladder
Yet I have remained behind, chained to the concrete
Whether it is my own self-pity or sorrow, I will not know
Worse yet, would be the thrill of claiming an illness
But the monster on my back is yelling in my ear
“Move forward! Move forward!
They will leave you behind!”
My mind tends to wander without a tether
And I am not strong enough to bring it back
It goes out and gathers daydreams and nightmares
Returning them to me and stealing from my pockets
I am no longer the king of my thoughts
For they dictate my grief and greatest fears
They command me to live away from the rest
Where the world will continue without me
As if I were already dead.
There will be no tombstone to mark my grave
No books in the library with my name between the pages
I cannot foresee that my grandchildren will remember
One such as I who will have done nothing of note
For this crumbling society to recall
I fear that my life will be erased in its entirety
From records, from tongues, from hearts, from minds
And I will have lived as a gust of wind
Passing by, which no one will remember.