He was a good man

Remember him as a good person

Always with a smile that made itself

And a joke tucked safe in his pocket

Next to his battered pack of cigarettes



Remember him as a good person

Just a day away from reaching himself

Trying to find the softer shade

That wraps itself around the next tree along



Remember him as a lost person

When is wallet ran dry to his thirst

That struck deeper than any bar could reach

He would strike up a match and swallow down

Some rich cotton wool smoke

And waited for his patience to fray.



Remember him as a lost person

With boots scuffed from the kick of the earth

And licked over with layers of old dust

With eyes that peered out, wrapped beneath

Layers of worried wrinkling skin

But with hands soft enough to keep his word

And straight teeth that remembered

The taste of unvarnished youth.



Remember him as a good person

Who lost his questions in haystacks

Where they were too safe from answers

And the answers he found, Were distorted in glass

Till he didn't want any around.