Here

Somewhere a hundred miles from me,

A baby has been born.

Gasping its first breath, cold on new flesh,

it screams for sure,

Greeting the world with a terrified

I’m here! I’m here!

Somewhere a hundred miles from that,

A house has been set aflame,

And a girl, lays curled upon the floor, heat burning skin

Praying that someone will come and find her,

Before all that cracking makes the house cave in.

Desperate to keep going she cries

I’m here! I’m here!

And a hundred miles more,

Finds a boy upon a bridge, cold burning skin,

He stares down into the depths, chest heavy, throat tight,

A hundred miles away, the boy steps back with a cry

I’m here! I’m here!

And the miles keep on going, around this twirling sphere,

A kiss here, a cry there,

A laugh or a shout that brings tears to the eye and burns the throat,

Pain that can only mean that you’re alive.

Someone’s getting married, someone’s getting killed.

Someone wants to steal it all, and someone wants to begin.

And then the last hundred miles,

Brings us back to me, the poet,

Lying flat upon the hospital bed, IV stuck in skin.

And as the world does leave me, in my vison going black

I think back to all those things I wrote, and hope that they will last.

That they will stand the test of time, and years from now people will read them and know

I was here.