Saving Strangers

You watch the world spin, he watches it fall apart. 

Yours keeps you alive, he feels like he’s choking on each beat of his heart. 

You wonder what the next minute has in store. 

He battles the fear of the next battle of the unending war. 

He strongly fortifies a front of being normal, help he does not seek

Mighty he feels for not killing himself so far, for wanting to he feels so meek

Not wrongly, do you measure strength by the soldier’s might.

Even so, he measures strength by surviving the night.  

You see him and you see a normal man

You would never think that in pain, his day ends as it began

He’s just as damaged as the man in rehab, the man in the psychiatric hospital is no stronger

Still yet, he holds on longer

We are all products of our joy, happiness, damage and pain

We all have seen light, we all have seen rain

Clouds only dot the blue skies for one, but the other is overwhelmed by the dark

One sees a bright painting, the other sees a canvas that is stark

You see blue skies, he sees an endless cloud

You genuinely are, but in order to blend in, he pretends to be proud

Every day, he fights weak legs, a weak back and doesn’t allow others to see him cry

You don’t see it because he puts everything he has into maintaining his lie

He is the man in front of you in line at Walmart

The stranger who flashes a smile despite lacking believe there’s anything worth fighting for in his heart

The driver who passed you on the street

You were going home to your family, to loneliness he drove, uncertain if his death he would meet

What if you could save a life by being a friend?

What if your kindness showed him his life doesn’t need to end?

What if talking with him for fifteen minutes was all you needed to do to with him stand?

And stop him from the pills hold in his hand?

What if you could make him see he is stronger while maintaining his belief in his strength for making it this far?

By doing nothing more than chatting with a lone stranger at the bar?

He’s your coworker who smiles and tries to be everyone’s friend

Because he knows the feeling of, fears everyone else, like him, is at the end

He is the strange boy in your class who talks to everyone, striving to show friendly affection

Because he knows the feeling of, fears everyone else, like him, suffers from feelings of rejection

Think not in terms of if you push him away or run away from him, but do you do more than stand still?

What if you don’t empty his glass so long as, if it’s near empty, it you do not fill?

Smile at the stanger, talk with the coworker a little longer, help your classmate out

May he be not your responsibility, even so, you may get him through the night, stop him from holding his pills, walking to the canyon, even for just the night, his self worth, clear his doubt.

His lowly state of mind is no fault of yours, but is he to blame?

No fault of his, his scarred, damaged brain simply plays the game.

His illness is as real as cancer despite the lack of manifestation

And longer than average against cancer, is his war’s duration

He hates himself for his weakness, feels pride for making it to where he stands

You are not to blame for the swamp he is in, even still, what if you could show him better lands?

Chemicals bounce around dangerously in his head

He knows he could be, but doesn’t know how, to be better, so drugs are in his blood, hookers in his bed

You don’t know, even still, what if kindness was all it took to show him he is above needing that?

And just one friendship could elevate him to look down with a smile at where he once was at?

Is it your fault he is so low?

Of course not, but is it his that his brain has been so corrupted by his past he doesn’t know where he could go?

On him alone, you would be foolish to blame his experience and perception

Illness and chemistry have made him their bitch and are the foundation of his reception

If you don’t smile, chat, would it be your fault if he downed the pill bottle tonight?

Of course not, even so, your kindness could be enough to make him from not one pill take a bite

Can you be blamed for not seeing beyond the lying?

No, but what if you treated everyone like they were and that stopped one person from dying?

What if you stopped seeing through your eyes, the blue heavens, and saw the clouds that fill his vision?

And that reversed an irreversible, tragic decision?

Blame on anyone cannot be assigned for him having ill fell

But what if you could help make him well?

Stop reacting to attempts to reach out and start reaching in, to be kind do your best

You never know how many beats you have saved in a stranger’s chest