A Dead Man’s Way.

By Arnav Mall

I beg I beg, 

One loaf of bread is all I need, 

In faces known I kept my hope,

Those smiles strangled me with a rope. 

I begged for an ounce of wheat,

"They love me" I said in my heart, 

And they forgot my face of woes, 

I begged for some, but was pierced with shards. 

I begged for a look,

Not from strangers, 

From the one I called my own, 

How foolish of me to forget, 

"No one remembers a dead man."

Dead I am to all, 

Dead I have always been,

The desires of my heart thrown away as if they didn't mean,

How foolish of me to forget, 

"A dead man's desires no one seas."

Even then I begged, 

Everything I gave I became broken,

Lost in madness, tears unspoken. 

I did not love seeking to gain,

I did not sow, excepting to rain, 

But I watered the rows with all my soul, 

My hands wearied filled with pain. 

But the sun never shined on me, 

All I gave was all in vain,

This day I stand again in that rain,

I saved others myself I cannot save. 

All shall leave, all shall give way,

For that is who I am, 

A soul lost in life's sway. 

I find no one, none will remain, 

Too dark a path I've been on always, 

But what I say does it matter?

For no one comes in a dead man's way.

By Arnav Mall