Hey you!

 

Hey you!
You got lucky, didn't you?
Transcended the chaos.
Remained serene in the face of insanity.
Your heart was stalwart,
Your soul impermeable.
Courage never faltered.
Testicles retained their fortitude.
Never shattered, never broken, you strode like a Colossus
across your personal universe.

Meanwhile...
Kris drowned in a vat of red wine and 50 years of misery.
Dave gave up music to repair cameras and pay bills.
The Boy was lost in a fog of fentanyl and tears.

Kim birthed 4 girls. Her husband demanded a son.
An icy mother fell on her leg when she failed to suicide
because her mate had another family in the next town over.
The leg was lost. 

Anna drove into a transport truck head-on
when she was told she'd need another kidney transplant.
Mike's heart attacked him to the death. 
Lockwood died of cancer. His obituary was merely factual.

Through all of this, you smiled and joked and carried on.
Leaving them all behind, one by one,
 as they dropped to the wayside.
Sometimes you think of them
and their glory days. 
And their cruelty. 
And the summer evening sunlight illuminating the verandah
 where you all sat on that final evening together.
Not knowing how life would turn out.

Most of the time, though, you move forward,
knowing full well that your time will also come to go away.
Unbothered. Unfettered. 
You really got lucky, somehow,
Untouched by the sorrow of loss.

©Ellen Pepper 2025

Image credit: Andy Thornton