Empathy Poem by Achim Wollscheid

I remember when you balled your fists and swung in drunken rage
You had fat tears in your eyes making my face a blur
I couldn’t help but to feel bad, to feel sympathy for you
You looked more sad than I’d ever seen anyone
I had this urge to take you in my arms
You wouldn’t let me, you just put up a shield
I prayed you would let your defense down
You didn’t and you said that you never would
I figured that something had happened when you were a child
You looked so tired and swollen from the world
I knew you had some bad experiences before
Your expressive face told me just about everything
I saw in your wrinkled forehead that you were tired out
You always had long sleepless nights
I took from the bruises on your cheeks that
Your father was a maniac because he always drank too much
I saw that when he lost control he took it out on you
You never did anything about it, but you cursed him in your mind
I know that you prayed to God that he would die
You got what you wanted, but at his funeral you couldn’t help but cry
I see the bags underneath your eyes
You must have had stressful nights, listening to wild storms
I hear them just as clearly and it hurts my ears
You must have broken down a thousand times
I know I would have if I had to hear them always fight
Your parents, they would yell hateful words back and forth
I don’t think they even cared that you were there
You look at me with those pain-stained eyes
I see through them like a tunnel, I see the passing lights at the end
You were under control and you kept your temper back then
I don’t understand how the change came about, but I see that…
You faced too much and you wanted out
I never took you for a fighter but
You are here with upraised fists ready to take a stand
I never thought you’d be a dreamer but
You showed me that you dreamed sometimes that life would be simple again