I listened to the old man’s sighs, <br />he bowed his head and closed his eyes. <br />Back in time his memories went. <br />His shoulders and his back were bent. <br />His face took on a haunted look, <br />as he scrolled through his minds scrapbook. <br /> <br />A smile appeared and up he glanced, <br />remembering some time enhanced <br />by pictures entering his mind, <br />something that he had left behind <br />in those faint far away spent days, <br />recollected down distant ways. <br /> <br />And then his countenance turned grim, <br />a stark event came back to him, <br />forgotten for a long, long spell, <br />making the shining tears to dwell, <br />within those seeing orbs that shone. <br />Is someone missing? Someone gone? <br /> <br />I saw before me a man wise, <br />and watched him as he tried to rise. <br />Stumbling, weary, along the road, <br />carrying such a heavy load <br />of sorrows, pain and things now past. <br />On cobblestones his shadow cast. <br /> <br />So slowly he advanced towards, <br />a shelter made of plywood boards. <br />And climbing in, was out of view, <br />his name, his age, I never knew. <br />I turned and walked across the square, <br />thinking that life was so unfair. <br /> <br />Next day I heard that he had died, <br />and that’s when I sat down and cried.<br /><br />Ernestine Northover<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/someone-missing-someone-gone/
