I Sit Beside My Friend Named Mick

Poem 20

I Sit Beside my Friend Named Mick

I sit beside my friend named Mick,
The drugs have knocked him out,
He sleeps through dreams of restless pain,
His body seemed to flout.

The times he laughed and dared us all,
To stop his reckless ways,
If he could hear his desperate calls,
I wonder what he'd say.

"I'll take it back and change my game,
It isn't worth the pain,
That racks my body, sears my brain,
That lies now forced to change."

For forty years we laughed at fate,
We dared life's damning charm;
To seize us by the cuff but knew,
We weren't immune to harm.

Immortal, young and reckless yes,
Who wasn't at that age,
But now the moans tear deep inside,
I wish we'd turned that page.

For now you cannot speak out loud,
You cannot say what's wrong,
You cannot laugh at life's demands,
Your gurgling breaths are long.

You make unconscious breathing hard,
While crying in your dreams,
Measured by this loving bard,
Who listens to your screams.

And then you quiet for just a bit,
And find a moment's peace,
Before your body brings you back,
To face the raging beast.

Don't tell me that you asked for this,
Tossed right beneath a bus,
Your body racked by cramps and pain,
And soon you're going to fuss?

Don't look at me and doubt me when,
This moment's passed and then,
You're able to make light my friend,
As though you've watched me bend.

This feeling as I'm by your side,
Your body fixed by tubes,
I speak to you in quiet tones,
So mindful of your moods.

The time has come to change your way,
And live to laugh and play.
Without the fear that seemed to drive,
Each reckless, endless day.

Please live instead for all the times,
That we have yet to be.
The future of our lives begins,
The moment you're set free.

09.03.2013

Charles F Berman Jr