Fear of Being Human

this silence
a fragile thing and
easily broken

a passing train
maybe
or the sudden scream
of brakes

the twisted metal
of a child's bicycle
and it becomes too much
just being human

i am a man watching his son
watch the ambulance arrive
and he is
so goddamned small

is so beautiful
standing at the porch window
with only this warped
pane of glass
between him and the
shadows of the crowd

and the sky is
blue beyond words
and the sunlight cold
and i have been a stranger
in all of these houses

-- John Sweet