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Home » Writing Portfolio » Entire Collection » A B C D-E F-G H-J K-M N-O P-Q R S T U V-Z » Greatest Hits

Half The Man

I've left you there rocking back and forth
not knowing that the night was slipping away
past the delusions and hallucinations and delirium
that makes it okay that this is the fourth
night in a row without sleep before morning,
but it's not okay, that's not okay anymore;

I've left you there stealing from people
who fed you and who loved you recklessly
down, down, down into the deepest, darkest
bottom anyone's ever seen because the Earth
only goes so deep, but the soul is a hole
filled with eternity, luck, and choices;

I've left you there acting like nothing's wrong
and nothing ever was, but not knowing
you're broken and broken down means
you don't know you need help getting back up
or where up even is, because I left you
before you uttered the words I give up;

I've left you there in a Godless world
with Godless people on a trajectory downward,
attracting people and things that
lubricated the slope down, and I watched you
get a running start before jumping onto the slide
and sailing down having little kid fun;

I left you there mutilating your body,
the only reminder left that your mother
was your greatest inspiration and your creator;
you mourn her death, grieve for your loss,
and at the same time actively work to destroy
the greatest gift she ever gave you;

I've left you there with a rusty blade
praying for God to take you before
you had to press it into your veins for release
from this population of people who always
seem to be doing better than you, but who
would have pressed down long ago...

...if they were half the man I've left behind.

© 2014 Nicholas Emeigh

Read by the Author

COMING
SOON


SoundCloud Reading

Part of the group "Record-A-Poem," and part of the Playlist "The Poetry of Nicholas Emeigh" which includes 40+ other poems.

Notes: This poem was written on Wednesday, January 29, 2014.  It was inspired by the purging of an old self in order to embrace something new.

©
The unique works displayed on the pages herein are © 1997-2013 Nicholas Emeigh. Use is restricted.

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  • Home
  • Writing
    • Poetry - Entire Collection >
      • Poems A-M >
        • A >
          • 4 a.m. in Beantown
          • About The Way You Look In This Photo
          • Airborne
          • All About Me
          • Amazing Motherhood
          • An Ant's Heartbeat
          • Angry, Angrier, Angriest
          • Antiquated
          • Art of Coasting, The
          • Autumn Leaves
        • B >
          • Bad Touches
          • Baggage
          • Bar Lighting
          • Behold This Love I've Laid to Rest
          • Benevolent God, A
          • Birth of a Generation
          • Blowing Smoke
          • Blue Balloon
          • Bohemians
          • Breakfast
          • Burn
          • Busy Museum
        • C >
          • Calico Waves
          • Carried
          • Caulk
          • Chapbook
          • Cocoon
          • Cold
          • Contortionist, The
          • Conundrum
          • Courage In Faith
          • Cowboys and Kings
        • D-E >
          • Daytime Nightmares
          • Doe
          • Don't Tell
          • Down Deep
          • Dreamer, The
          • Dreams Of A Real Life
          • Easter '94-'14
          • Easy Street Wasn't Paved
          • End of the World, The
          • Ever-Autumn Town
          • Everyone
        • F-G >
          • Family
          • Fear of Heights
          • First Fall Harvest
          • Footprints
          • Forecasting
          • Fragile
          • Friends
          • Fucked
          • Funeral For Me and You, A
          • Grandparents Day
          • Grounding Exercise
          • Growing Up
        • H-J >
          • Haiku on Working
          • Half The Man
          • Heaven
          • High Wire Walker
          • Him
          • Homestead
          • I Am Cold Turkey
          • If
          • Imaginary Friends
          • Instant Safety: Add Water & Stir
          • Interview
          • Iridescence
          • I Still Dream of You
          • It's A Funny Thing Being Lonely
          • Just Answering a Question
        • K-M >
          • The Key
          • King of Marigolds
          • Lost Souls
          • Love As Such
          • Love Song
          • Lube
          • Machine Dreams
          • A Makeshift Prayer
          • Maniac
          • Manifesto
          • Masks
          • Maybe Account, The
          • May Twenty Third
          • Money
          • Mother's Day
          • Muse
          • Musing on a Hunt
          • My Mother's Eyes
      • Poems N-Z >
        • N-O >
          • Napster Revolt
          • Nest
          • New Year
          • Noël Coward's Party
          • No Fun
          • Not Cool
          • Not Crazy
          • Old Love
          • On Norman Mailer's Death
        • P-Q >
          • Painter Man
          • Party People
          • Perfume
          • Personal Wealth
          • Philadelphia
          • Pity Party
          • Plan, A
          • Please Leave the Memories
          • Politics
          • Prankster
          • Present Company Excluded
          • Pride It Was And Dignity
          • Puppy Love
          • Quack
        • R >
          • Radar
          • Rated "R"
          • Real Pitfalls
          • Reconciliation
          • Respect For Elders
          • Résumé
          • Resurrection
          • Return To Light From Darkness
          • Risk
        • S >
          • Save A Place For Me
          • Sex, Fast.
          • Shell
          • She Doesn't Hold a Candle
          • Signature
          • Simple Man, A
          • Spirit Specialist
          • Spring
          • Still Life With Butter Dish
          • Studio System
          • Sup
          • The Surgeon
        • T >
          • Teacher
          • Thank God, It Was Only A Dream
          • These Voices
          • They
          • They Say I'm Crazy
          • This Doesn't Rhyme
          • A Time Before Dying
          • Toxic Friends
          • Trademark
          • Treadmill
        • U >
          • Under Bed Delivery
          • Underground Reverie
          • An Understanding
          • Unearthly
          • Untitled
          • Untitled 2
          • Untitled People
          • Untitled Sadness
          • Utopian Melodrama
        • V-Z >
          • Verse For A Death Chamber
          • Volley
          • War
          • Warming Up To Change
          • Weathered Hands
          • We the Depressed
          • What It's Like to Look at Me
          • What Would You Have Done With Me?
          • Who Can Say?
          • You, Me, and He
          • The Young Narcissists
    • SoundCloud Poetry Readings
    • YouTube Poetry Readings