Song of the Stoic

I am a man

I’ve been working all my days

This is my accounting

Of my means and of my ways

More years are behind me now

Than years that are ahead

Looking back I feel

This is my story to be said

I faced my father down

Inside the hallway of our home

18 Years of pain

Upon my body to the bone

Demons lived inside of him

They forced him to the act

The layers of the bruises

To my body was the fact

I grew and went into the world

I learned to know it’s code

Of spoken and unspoken

And I learned to love the road

I shoulder every burden like

A mule with a heavy pack

Every coin I earn is another

Knot within my back

Ecstasy and pleasure come

At much too great a cost

I keep myself upon the earth

But measure what I’ve lost

Winged things they brush against me

Never mine to hold

I keep my eyes upon the ground

And carry on as old

I met a woman

She had the gifted touch

Her hands were wise with healing

And with wonder and all such

As the fates would have it

Each to others we are wed

We confine ourselves to friendship

And we stay out of the bed

Now I turn around to face

The specter of my age

My soul it fights my body

Like a bird will fight its cage

I see that last horizon

I hope it brings me peace

I look forward to the day

At last my body knows release