12 (6-51)
Like flowers petals torn away,
lives were torn from youth today.
Like burning flames too quickly dimmed,
life was doused and lies forgone.
Too soon the clouds raced past this hill.
Too fast these lives forsaken, stand
stranded like broken wings
that only dreamt of leaving land.
And wander these souls through time of life
that do bestow all natures dreams
on those with stricken paths that lie
in platitudes of sanctity.
Yet where do dreams of hearts begin
within the night of life's dark soul?
Too dimly lit to find or see
such dreams that die in infancy.
No sun can light these sullen shores,
or burn these strands of hangman's rope,
nor foster seeds so barely sown
in children's hearts and parents hopes.