Thank God

Thank God I'm alive.

Four words that have taken too long

To escape from these lips

And still stumble out

Like a drunk driver

Swearing to the officer

That everything is normal

When evidently

It's not.

I never thank anyone

For the things they do.

I'm too busy

Wrapped up in my own memories

Some better named as miseries,

Never seeing what is right before me.

I only open my eyes

And ears when I feel

The light, the engine, the rumbling

As the train of my own bad intentions runs me over.

Thank God I'm alive.

For if I was not here today,

I would never have seen tomorrow

Or been able to call yesterday by its proper name.

There are seven months with thirty-one days

Seven months when I experience another yesterday

To overcome in this journey of life.

I'm always climbing through days,

Exploring the trenches

Versus skipping through weeks,

Leaping over every pothole.

Thank God I'm alive.

Beds have always been a place of comfort

A security that some days I wish

Would just hold me a little closer

Just a little bit longer in its arms.

For every day I have pulled away

Another penny is added to my change jar

For making a change in the day's events;

Pushing past whatever originally would keep me there.

Thank God I'm alive,

Because if I wasn't,

I wouldn't have made it here.

I would be six feet under,

A juvenile death

On the hands of those who still wouldn't know

It was faith that kept me here

But others' lack of humanity

That pushed me out the door

And muted every sound of hope.

Thank God I'm alive.