MY FATHER

He was clearing out the cobwebs

From all the seasons passed

The years were coming quicker now

And quicker still, each passed

If time can move so quickly

Then why does the mind stand still

He knew that there could be no God

And that hell on earth was real

These cobwebs are relentless, he thought

They're always coming back

He'd sweep them away on clear, sunny days

But the north wind always blew them back

He was jolted into the past

In no time at all

But he sat there in the present

So no one ever saw

He was a time traveler

Always going back

To walk inside his shadow

On the long and winding path

He was the miner of what can't be forgotten

He was the heart that holds the war

He carried with him the stories of many others

And through his veins, that history poured

He had walked through a hellscape

With a specter close behind

It always hung around him

But at night, it came alive

He was not awake to fight it

And the veil, it wears so thin

The war, it filled his beating heart

In this life, there was no end

He watched the earth break open

He saw the sun turn black

From a stranger's foreign shore

He never could come back

He held the love of many others

But they weren't the ones who knew

They could see the edges of his pain

But the contents were only known to a few

The war, it never ended

Within him, it still grew

How many lives can one man carry

He already knew.