There Lives A Man Poem by Justin Short

There lives a man who cannot attain
He can no longer walk and his legs become lame
The legs that won’t work have feet that are bowed
And far to his south are ten broken toes

What do you call him who forgets his name?
He takes no umbrella to lie in the rain
He feels he’s been cheated and sees only pain
His heart has been broken and that’s what he blames

“Curse this foul heart! Get it out of my chest! ”
The pills that he swallows will slow down his breath
“Nobody knows me or cares if I die”
He recalls his name, then calls it a lie

While fighting for sleep, he does drift away
And dreams of a distant, magnificent place
No stranger is known, merely friends meet his eye
No longer forgotten, alone or demised

“Am I in Heaven? ” he thinks in his head
“Surely I’m dreaming, ” were the words that he said
He walks without pain or a fear in his mind
That love again finds him, then leaves him behind

Remembering a time when life was not cursed
Before his beloved was taken by hearse
Before all the booze and the pills and the hate
The nightmares and torments his dreams would create

Marylou Lee was the bride’s name to be
She cried for an hour when he took a knee
He gave her the ring and his heart and his soul
He gave her his reigns and let her take control

Marylou knew that her soul mate was found
The two were together as if they were bound
Her man had not riches, but knew how to toil
He scrimped and he saved as he worked in the soil

For two years he planned perfection for her
Deserving the best, he’ll give her the world
She was simplistic, she needed no gold
She only wanted her man’s hand to hold

The day before marriage they did celebrate
A trip to the pub after food on a plate
Feeling the buzz they walked home from the town
A buzz that was stronger ran both of them down

His body awoke but his soul died that night
Mary had lost both her soul and her life
All that she wanted was to be with him
He was her soul mate, her lover, best friend

All that he had, had been stripped away
The driver who took her did find her same fate
There was now nothing that her man could do
He numbed himself down, fifteen years full of booze

The warmth and radiance recalls back his mind
A voice beckons him, coming up from behind
“Who knows me here, in this world without pain?
Who knows me here or remembers my name? ”

He turns and meets the voice that did call
“Marylou Lee? ” as the tears start to fall
“Jacob, my love, I have waited up here
Fifteen long years without pain, without fear.”

Rejoined again for a moment of time
Apologies spoken seem far out of line
Distance and hurt will indeed play a part
But healing will come when it comes from the heart

A dream or a death will not break away
The light of the moon or the warmth of the day
Is this a dream or had Jacob died?
I leave the end for you to decide