Strike the Match
by Michael Doyle

Life broke our hearts
And filled it with sorrow
Life killed our hope
By filling us with promised tomorrows

There inside our broken smiles
Are the tatters, we won't leave behind
Even for a sacred shot at sanity
That is, after all, naught but vanity

We live for love but often find none
It would be nice to win at what can't be won
We are who we are because of our care
It's a hard price but just about fair

We'd choose no other way if we could
There between the good and bad is the should
Of all that we would seek to be
In the eyes of our children, we find immortality

We lost 10,000 years when Alexandria burned
All of the stories and lessons well learned
Things of beauty lost inside those flames
When the match was struck in that shame

The core of the old world is shaken
By the first steps of the new world taken
It's easy to get lost inside the darkness
Until you learn to see ahead through the harshness

Who it is that we need to be to stay alive
This is the secret pain through which we survive
The only way we win is in opening our eyes
Sighing from sleep into yet another sunrise

(c) May 4, 2022   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved