All In Vain Poem by Mario, Lucien, Rene Odekerken

The hands moved, but the clock did not listen.
I spoke, but the walls absorbed the words,
left them hanging in the heavy air,
where silence wears the shape of a scream.

I built, brick by careful brick,
laid foundations deep in the soil of tomorrow,
but the rain came early,
and the earth swallowed everything whole.

I ran toward the horizon,
but it stretched further,
a child pulling the sun just out of reach.

I held love like water in my palms,
but fingers are sieves,
and hearts-oh, hearts-
are the softest things to break.

I wrote letters no one read,
sang songs no one heard,
lit fires that gave no warmth.

And so I sat beneath the weight of the sky,
watching the wind steal my breath,
watching time unspool into nothing,
watching the world move-
indifferent, unshaken, untouched.

And I knew then, as I know now-
it was all in vain.