Save Yourself

I saw you lying there

with a bullet in your breast,

struggling for breath, wasting away

All it took was one hit

from a stranger’s gun

No one loved you, you thought.

Your bloodsoaked shirt

clung tightly to your skin

I tried to cut you free, believe me.

Blind with pride, refused,

nailed each limb to the ground,

You put yourself to sleep.

The bed of blood would then dry up,

your flesh eaten away

A mass of bones to sink into the earth without a trace.

When I saw you lying there,

life still trickling out your chest, I knew:

nothing fate brought could have saved you.