He was a cheerless soul
Always searching, never
Knowing

He lived his life from day
To day
To day
To day
To day

He worked a job
An easy job
Manufacturing
Children’s toys

The job pained
Him
The children he loved
Never loved
Him

His wife
Had left ten years
Ago

The names,
The places,
The people
Just floated
By, the man never noticed
Them

He hated his
Job
He hated
His life
But all would end soon

The children had gone,
The littlest stayed
Home
The middle
Off to college
The other became a
Teenage mother
The days were a
Blur
He and his
Daughter fought
Almost every day


The constant calls from
The daughter
With a daughter of
Her own

The son doing
Drugs in his
College dorm


The man’s life
Was useless
And his
Sweet Eleanor

She had gone ten years ago
The man came home
To find the children
As they wept

The man had paused
Unsure of what
To do

Eleanor was the woman;
She took care
Of the children

But the man had walked
Away
Didn’t know how to comfort them
At their
Tender ages

And so,
Marking the ten
Year anniversary,
Ten years since his wife
Had gone

The man had taken
The weapon
From the box
Hidden in the basement
He went to his
Bedroom
Turned off all of
The lights
He lay down on
The bed
Lifted the weapon
And

Gone.

The next morning
The daughter walked in
To find her father
Dead

This is an ode
To the man
Whose life ended
After thirty three years
Of the perfect
Life

And ten years
Exactly,
Of perfect misery