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