To Adam

I saw your name in a poem
Someone else wrote about my life
And did not sign their name.
My heart broke so finally and completely into dust;
And then it blew away.
The pain was a silent, rapid thunderbolt,
A jolt of reality harsh, quick and stunning,
Like a slap to the core of my inner soul.
Tears brimmed to my eyes
As my heart released them.
They cut my soul like two-edged swords
As they fell - so many I could not see.
The pain reared up on my tongue
And it tasted of stale memories
And shattered dreams that have a death hold
on my suffocating soul.
The story is mine, the pain is mine,
You stole my heart and my reality
And someone else stole my words.

by H. W., Bedford, MA