The Numb-ers

I read a book, watch a movie

For but minutes at a time

For with every phrase or pose

Another mem'ry chimes

In all the world reminders

In every word connections

To send my anger spiralling

My thoughts in all directions

The heavy weight and sheer volume

Of incidents and episodes

Leaves me prone and gasping

And lain beside the road

If only but another

Could experience the same

They'd fully know the trauma

For which there is no name

But they don't, and never will

They're the thorn and not the side

Unaware and blissful

And quick to guilt deny

So life for me is lived

In a molten, angry flow

For never will they truly

Feel what I feel, deep within my soul

Life is, usually, a combination of both good and bad, with the hope of more of the former and less of the latter. However, that is not always the case. In fact, sometimes quite the reverse is the reality. The trouble is that joy tends to be fleeting, and needs replenishing often; we may indeed have fond memories of good time, but they tend to have an element of the ethereal. Pain and hurt, on the other hand, tends to linger, fester, and play on a loop. And though we may not wish such difficulties on another, there are times (if we are honest) that we want others to experience something similar if only in order to feel better understood. Not particularly magnanimous, but surely human.

“Nothing fades as fast as the future, and nothing clings like the past.”

Peter Gabriel