There isn't enough I can do by myself

I was thinking about life and stuff and how some people kind of strike out or get just plain unlucky. So I wrote a poem that kind of expresses how I feel. This one's for the down-and-outs: may you never be ignored.

Squinting sadly toward the sunset

Sucking on his cigarette

He’s lonely and unloved much like his college years

The families all have moved away

Left dusty trails and unshoed bays

They never thought again of him or shed a tear

As he reaches into his coat

He pulls out a jagged old note

Wond’ring how the world so quickly got away from him

And oh, how we all knew

This would eventually happen to one of us

And we all breathed a sigh of relief

That it was Jim and not us that turned out this way

He knows just what this trail holds

Gradually just growing old

And every single time he thinks of it he cries

The bright glad sun it cheers him not

He savors every gloomy thought

Although he wishes they would all just go away

We never knew what came of him

We all just figured poor old Jim

Had done disappeared into the bitter past

And oh, how we all knew

That he would eventually lose himself

And we all breathed a sigh of relief

That we had gone through school and turned out okay

Well, you will imagine my surprise

When Jim appeared before my eyes

One cold fall afternoon around dinnertime

His beard is grey with blistered lips

Cold as wintry fingertips

He looks like something straight out of a book

Life rolls like an avalanche

Jim’s was fast approaching death

It’s a shame he never knew what it could have been

And oh, how we all knew

That life’s bounty isn’t given equally

And we all breathed a sigh of relief

When we all got a liberal portion

P.S. Brian, I want to set this to music, so you better get practicing that acoustic of yours. ;)