Dark Room, Big Soft Chair

Sometimes, I sit in the dark. I've got a little drink next to me, by an ashtray, swirling, bluish smoke high into the air.

Sitting in a big soft chair. Memories sneak silently, inside of me.

Many years have passed...I wonder...how much longer I'll last.

But, I don't worry about it.

I'm not afraid of death, having tasted it a couple of times in the past.

Touched it too...through the hand of a few.

The friend or family member, as I watched their failing breath. They went so quietly away.

Told them... "It's Okay"... Didn't ask them to stay.

I'm in a big, old, soft chair. Sitting in the dark. Watching ghosts of the past.

Wondering...how long...memories, like these, will last?

I must have been about five years old, walking alongside my fathers hand. Don't know where we were coming from, but know...we were on the way home.

And...It was night... A warm night.

There was this alley between two stores, faintly lit by the bounched glow of a streetlight.

Not far inside...shuffling of shoes brought my eyes to a sight, that after all these years, could never be unseen. The sound of a young man and a hand; muffling his screams.

While being held tight, in the grip of two others, pushed against the bricks of a wall. It looked like, he wanted to fall.

The hand of my father felt big upon mine, made me feel safe, as he tugged me away...but, not before I saw...a third man...with a cigarette...glowing hot; pressed to the chest of the guy against the wall.

The one being held up, who looked about to fall...

"Why are they doing that to that man?"

I asked.

"They're bad men"...he said... "Come on, lets go."

For a long time later, I wondered and wondered, 'What kind of a man, could do such things to another man and smile while doing the evil deed"...???

Not the kind of man...'I' ever wanted, to be...

All these years later, I sit in the darkness of a room

thankful, that

the man...I cannot un-see.

happily, is not...a man...like me.

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_{Image: Compliments of Pixabay.com}