Between These Lines

I never said thank you…

Through thunder and rain
As you rubbed my brow
Soothed, “Don’t be afraid”

The time you came to my recital
Cheered over the hushed crowd
As if I were your idol

Lifting me above your shoulders high
Letting me play spaceman
In my mind’s imagined skies

My memory can’t recall
The time nor things
That led to your fall

I sadly wasn’t around then

The blurb in the local newspaper read:
“Discovered in an alley
Vagrant found dead”

No mention at all that you were
Someone looked up to
A big brother, best friend

A life summed up
By a publishing edit
Another homeless druggie
The public discredits

But I don’t want an end read like that.

I can’t sum up the life lessons,
All the precious things you gifted me,
In cute rhymes and catchy limericks.

I love you and never stopped
Even when you screamed
You wanted to be left alone,
Needed no intervention,
And walked off pushing a rusted grocery cart
Filled with useless trinkets and a car tire.
The valued remains of a broken man
Born cursed with a kind and rich soul.

I loved you even more still
When you couldn’t be found.
Disappeared with no contact
For over half a year.
Prayers sent out every night
In hopes they found their way
Under rain soaked cardboard,
Behind rank dumpsters,
Or beside warm vents
To touch and comfort you.

I know that no drug
Could gloss over
With a temporary high
The pain to your pride
When you came to my house
Humbled to ask for a shower.

Errant rings of my doorbell
On my birthdays and Christmas,
Finding on my steps
A bag of Werther’s
Stapled with a bow.

I see you! I see you!
Through tears…
I see you.

Even when you couldn’t hear
All the thank you’s
And the prayers that I sent,
I only saw the dignity in you,
As you lived beyond the margins,
Out of reach and under bridges,
Wasting away slowly
Between the lines.