Silently Dying

An old broken man clutches a ragged blanket,
Remnants of a loved one taken away from this abbot.
Tears shed like blood drenching this wrinkled visage,
Torn asunder from the one in this corrupted image.
Guilt-ridden and bloody, sobbing in the corner,
A once happy and vibrant man now turned mourner.
Drunken nights and bruised reminders cascade through his memory,
Recollection is his enemy, locked away in a private penitentiary.
Roads shine vibrantly with a sheet of pale ice,
Propelled in a car driven by an old vice.
Screams of panic and fear ring in drunk ears,
A child and a wife sweating bullets and tears.
Traction diminishes and wheels screech across the pavement,
Innocent lives left to a madman’s enslavement.
Lost loved ones flail and bounce against seats and glass,
The corpses shatter through and careen across an overpass.
The man left alone in the front seat of a nightmare,
Clutching his head, alcohol replaces his usual eye wear.
Now shadows crash against the empty walls,
Once covered in portraits, now sudden withdrawals.
Gnarled fingers wrapped tight around a handgun,
Pressed to the temple in hopes of soon seeing a sun, he’s gone.