Turning Point Poem by Robert William Schmitz

There comes a point in everyone’s life
That split second where all your outlooks are changed
The way you look at life stops, it’s as if the spin of the world reverses
Going back to the start of this night
It’s appalling that a few simple words can affect your life
Can put the worse thoughts through your brain
There are times when you feel you can control others better than yourself
The times when you’ll do anything to find a bit of peace
That night was warm, very odd for a November night
But yet the cold grip of depression wrapped tight like a tight scarf around my neck
I stepped off my front porch, that night I was determined to find relief
With every burdened footstep, it grew worse
A sharp pain courses from my heals straight through my heart
Passing the car park turns to uncomfortable preying eyes
As I walk, a homeless shuffle follows me through each turn and alley
I turn to see a the face of a broken past
A smell invades my nostrils
My head fills with the putrid smell of failed dreams
We sat there starring at each other for a few moments
As I starred I felt the pain and suffering in his emotionless stare
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the only cash I has on me
As he reached for it and took it with his chapped and dirty hands
I saw him visibly deflate with this sense of shameful self disgust
I turned around shoved my hands deep in my pockets and sulked away
I heard this raspy voice trail softly from behind me
“You know I haven’t always been this man”
“You may not be able to tell but I’ve had my days”
He must have recognized the look of self destruction
Because the next things he said to me left me ashamed disgusted with my own thoughts
“There were nights sleeping in muddy pits over seas where I felt I was in paradise”
“Moments when my son was born when I just felt like running”
“When my two brothers and business partners died in a car crash”
“Son I know what’s going through your head but life goes on”
I looked deep into this man with a feeling of strange relief
I took off running knowing that I would take this new life for everything I could.