Author's Note

Written for the Q&S Dictionary of Thoughts #2 contest, with the prompt "Experience is the extract of suffering".

Standing Alone (Poem)

Innocence prevails, its soft and warm touch.
There's never true fear; I've missed it so much.
I'll push through the pain, to protect those such.
Keep up the strong walls that they've known.

Without a care; that's how they see things.
Their eyes are all shielded by motherbird's wings.
Eventually a glimpse of what the world brings.
And then they're left standing alone.

Breaking the walls and connecting the clues.
Fantasy shattered; it's not such a cruise.
Stormy waters ahead, we're lighting the fuse.
These shivers that freeze to the bone.

Struggles abound, you've joined with the old.
Where joy is forgotten and left in the cold.
Another statistic, and until we get bold…
We'll be here standing alone.

You'll learn of young eyes, how precious they are.
You'll want to stand strong, let their view go unmarred.
You'll see all the sacrifice, why we'll go so far.
To keep them on underground thrones.

The bonds that we've made, they're about to break.
The fault is unowned, a collective mistake.
We all have to move on, with the monsters we make.
I don't mind that I'm standing alone.

My time's at its end, I couldn't be saved.
My dying wish, that the world will stay brave.
Keep pushing forward for that freedom we crave.
Be at peace with the experiences we've known.

For the world will be standing alone.