Something’s Wrong!

Something’s wrong---I feel it deep within.

Something is out of line, warped, circular,

Causing me to fail miserably at those

Friendships, relationships, casual contacts

From the everyday. Needless to say that

“Something” effects my perspective on other peoples,

It hides and appears at the damdest times

Creating walls of isolation, mucking my mind,

Making retreat my usual direction in life.

Fear, misunderstandings, inability to connect,

Powerless to push off the dock and into the stream-

Yes, something’s wrong and knowing at my life

Fogging my glasses, leaving me breathless, unable

To live existence without the limp of life.



I’ve had coffee these days, sat at the empty table,

Unfolded the newspaper, listened in on nearby conversations.

You can guess what I’ve heard, “Something’s wrong” and

Explanation and excuse, blaming, and frustration direct

The words, hold the conversations endlessly in

Suspension and never does it ground itself in the

Person’s heart and consciousness that maybe it’s

Them, maybe they are accountable and until this thing

Is addressed and the limp in life, the heartbreak,

the loneliness, the fears, the shame is recognized as

part of “us” and that we cannot fix it alone, by ourselves,

we cannot deny it forever, we cannot stuff it deeper and

deeper into the wounds and sores within without scraping

our hearts and the painful ache subsides, we will

tiptoe around the gash and bear the pain and

search dishonestly for some salve.



Whether we were born with this gash or got it from

Our society, whatever the cause, it is there in all of us!

Someone needs to show us the direction,

the way to bear this wound so that life can be lived

and dreams can be pursued, and hopes can be followed.



Sometimes, on my bed at night, struggling with sleep, mind

Racing nowhere but in circles, anxiety over some stupid decision,

Fear that I’m the only one in the human race bearing this

Gash, that I’m odd and strange, uncommon, sometimes

Just before sleep arrives there is a shadow I see;

two wooden crossbars just stuck deep somewhere,

heavy, and then I hear muttered words, agonized

speech saying “forsaken.” For some reason I sense that at least

someone else knows what I’m feeling and is in it with me to the

end.













Richard W Smith

January 28, 2011