Hope's Brightest Ray

                            Alone beneath the wind’s white drifting

A lonely, yet not surprising sadness stirs his heart

For a time when life served him so much more

Oh how he longs to go back before it all fell apart

When loved ones were close beside and never far

And laughter sounds a stronger note than tears

He sits on the park bench and questions why

His aching heart longs for those lost yesteryears

 A more simple time moved much slower back then

And a home meant joy within his boyhood breast

To hear those old familiar voices calling him back

Would give him a new song filled with joy and rest

His eager youth could never find a way to hold it

Although his yearning heart tried so earnestly

The wind’s directions pulled at his heart strings

But life’s lessons unfolded bitter and so strongly

A young man in his prime set out to do his duty

To conquer the world and see a magnificent place

Fighting for freedom, his homeland and country

But war’s wounds can never be forgotten or erased

The cold‘s sting, the wind’s own flying breath

Stirs more so, the old hurts his mind has bore so long

And that long ago boy that fast became a man

Wonders how he’s suppose to live and carry on

There’s been to many days of anguish, nights of pain

Since the hands he held in his, long loosed their hold

Through the summer’s heat and winter’s wrath

After a while a lonely heart tends to lose all control

 If for one brief moment he could see a friendly smile

It would help his mind find a stillness of it’s own

Such a thing is worth it all and would last for quite a while

And has the power to lift one from a combat zone

If he could tell his stories of how he grew and lived

Working hard to feed his family, he’d welcome it in

And how he missed out on an education cause life was slim

He’d forget about his lost years and smile once again

He grew up knowing what he had to do and how

Oh the things he could tell, what joy it would bring

And the wisdom he learned down through the years

Common sense will take you far and means everything

Maybe if listening ears could spare a little time

And relive an old man’s life, what knowledge they’d gain

It would shed new light on a past that’s never gone

For the ways of the old, time well spent is never in vain

Till then he’ll sit and wait for the spring birds to sing

Perhaps the sun’s warmth might brighten his day

Bringing joy to his lonely heart and food for his soul…and

  Loneliness might be left smoldering in hope’s brightest ray

© Susie Swanson, 2017