The rise of a new dawn brought light, but that of a different kind, for from where he lay the sky painted a clearer vision, the striking rise of scorching heat, burnt right through his already tarnished life, the continued beating, be it the fall of Heaven's tears, electric bolts or the white ice, in a mask of candy flakes, he tasted them all.
Within his dwelling a place, which was meant to be one of comfort and tranquillity, though instead intruders are free to present fear whenever their will needs feeding. Through the starry darkness, his eyes remained shut, with intention to reach the land of dreams, but only halfway could he travel, for to be there was at the invite of the dark raider, so to be here was rest, but the voices of reality remain.
The warmth of the throwaway boxes and the daily readers' curiosity was all that the pleasure of home could offer. He held on to his arms, the only friends he knew; he trusted them only, for they fed his hunger cries.
You walk by him each day, taking that same route to where you have to be, but have you noticed his bruised frame, his hands covered with blisters, his feet cut open, the result of glassy paths? We all are guilty, guilty of not knowing, of not seeing, of not giving.
What is done is done though, we cannot go back now to where he laid, for he has moved on - to where you ask, somewhere this earth has no footprints of, somewhere, where the only son that burns is of a peaceful kind. Why didn't you stop the young men from using his fragile body as a football, from stealing his few rands, which he needed so, just to live a little more?
Why didn't you think to give him that bread, the one you threw away while he stood in a distance and watched you with a deep sigh? Why didn't we? That is something we cannot undo. I found out this day, that there is where he never always was, there is where he never always laid, for from whence he came, flowers of many colours bloomed.
They say he went away, and they never knew where, search they did both near and far, but lost is the label that was only found. Their hearts cried out but with relief, for they had finally found him and the torture of not knowing, he has rest in peace. His wondering mind had forgotten home, forgotten who, forgotten they.
They allowed me, as I walked in awe through his study place, his own sanctuary, where no storms could hunt him down and no light of day could burn his life. Upon his dusty oak table, laid an ink jar just as he had left it, beside a book of memories, one that two years had stolen from, and will forever be forgotten. The picture on the wall was of a soldier, his polished boots and coloured honours; the stars upon his shoulders proved he knew his way, a gentleman with a unique smile, one we never saw when we walked by.
I was interrupted by the presence of a young woman with sad eyes though she forced a smile at me, I know she said, but we too are guilty, for we had walked him by, and never even cared to look into his eye, he was so close yet so faraway. I could not blame her or even them, though they were the only ones that knew him best, for who would think to search within the rubble, for a general, a man of wealth, a father that had loved his own.
Each day I walk by the place of where he laid, and I remember, that there are more like him, more that walk these streets and ones we have never walked before, there are more who have lost their way, who have no way, who seek a way, while we lay in our place of warmth, their hearts freeze within a selfish world.
We sing of hope, of peace, of faith, and of love, but do we sing for the purpose to gain our own praises? Should we not redirect our mission on the truth of what we have labelled it? Let us do it for the ones who cannot do it for themselves, look at them through different eyes, do not judge if you wish not to be judged, help them find a way out, find a way home, find a way back, to living again.
Change has a wonderful meaning but it has an opposite meaning too; change so that there might be no more forgotten souls; change so that we may find the lost soldier, before he leaves this world with a vision of no hope for us.