Perspective

I died today

As I watched you slowly fade away

And with fascinated horror

Could not avert my gaze

Live for me

You begged me silently

As your eyes connected with mine

But your plea was lost

Because within my mind a single

Unrelenting thought

Pushed out all the rest

“I’m so glad it isn’t me.”

I could never be the hero

Like you who

Gave your life to save my own

In that position

I could

I would

I did

Selfishly

Only think of me

But a coward dies a thousand deaths

They say

And only now that my path is set

Along that course

Can I truly understand

What those words mean

Today was just the first of many

And I will spend the remainder of the life

I held so dear

Dying all the rest