Rejected Poem by Jeffrey Philip Clegg

You know I gave you everything
And you simply walked away
Wasn't asking for a Purple Heart
But you left me alone and blue

Was like being lost in a forest
With no one to grasp
The foliage shimmering green
Yet unseen by me

Not given any choice
But to hold myself
Cannot look at you any longer

Reduced to a naked animal
Retracting inside myself
To a flawed embryonic state

Was honest with you
Yet no chance was taken
The sliver of doubt
Eaten like the apple of Eden

Stranded in pain and anguish
Will never walk again
Looking blindly inside myself
For something only I seem to see
You have destroyed me
And I am here to die
Beneath the canopy of life.