It Could Have Been Me

I met him in a small cafe With a view of the bayside beach With the girl he conversed he was clearly in love So I thought it my duty to teach I approached his perch and I shook his hand And the hand of his lady too I told him why I had come to him “I have something to say to you” “When I was young I loved and lost But I suppose I was deceived For I must have thought that I would be aware If she was soon to leave” “The difference my man between you and you and me Is that your eyes show no dread Of losing your woman to a pile of gold With the form and the face of a friend” Quite puzzled at first his face did seem And I suppose it was rightfully so For why had he just been lectured By a man he did not even know While strange it was and uncomfortably so He for some reason looked not away Perhaps it was pity, I may never know But regardless he decided to stay ‘Twas many a year ‘for I saw him again Perhaps twenty or thirty or more Til the woman he loved took the form of his wife And the first of their heirs had been born When out on a walk I saw him quite clear On a bench by the courthouse he sat He remembered my face after all of those years As I approached him and took off my hat He told me of family, his children, his wife And me of my newfound success I made note to myself of the joy in his life As I departed and wished him the best For several years following, I went without word From him or his wife or at all Til I found him years later when I passively heard He’d been desperately trying to call Now the tone of his voice was shrouded in fear For he had no one left to procure The woman he loved had a sickness severe That the doctors were useless to cure So through my wealth and my fortune I endowed their brave souls With all of the science of men But despite my best efforts I failed them all And I let love go dark once again Once that woman was gone the time was not far For her husband to join her at home Stronger I suppose was their connection of heart Then even I could have known And as he lay dying, he stared in my eyes And inquired of me "is this the end?" I looked at him gently and began to weep, "quite the opposite my friend” But his eyes showed confusion, as one lost at sea As if he could not fathom why, “Tell me, from whence come your tears for me? I'm not afraid to die” And that was the last that I heard from that man Before his body was taken away And I still sometimes wonder if it may have been best To have ended it some other way I grasped him by the shoulders and I held him, “don't you see? It could have been me It could have been me…”