That Last Carefree Day

it seems like it was yesterday

but also long ago

younger and almost innocent

my whole world seemed to glow

 

but since then we have all been changed

our lives look different now

after everything that happened

I’m left wondering how

 

our world became so overcast

now I can only see

blood red clouds on my horizon

yet the sky is empty

 

the breeze no longer seems to play

the crows have no answers

the trees and I have no colour

none of us are dancers

 

the dark seems almost constant but

we shouldn't be in winter yet

and every night my sheets are soaked

in the wrong kind of sweat

 

I’m waking before the robins

and can't get back to sleep

replaying that scene in my mind

and wishing I could keep

 

us from the nightmare that followed

or somehow find a way

to go back and take a photo

of that last carefree day

 

I remember Catherine smiling

when I wasn't able

to win at cards with her and Will

at our corner table

 

but that was the last pure moment

it all began from there

our story started to unfold

in that moment where

 

the bell rings and we all look up

as he steps through the door

school finished half an hour ago

he's not been late before

 

we can tell that something happened

Kaden seems shaken up

he insists he isn't hungry

and stares into his cup

 

I see red storm clouds in his eyes

as he peers through the veil

Catherine asks him if it was bad and

he begins his tale

 

he tells us all about a man

the horrors he has seen

back then we didn't realise

just what all that would mean

 

he told us tales of this darkness

of magic, and of war

even now I can remember

his description of the gore

 

we laughed and tried to cheer him up

said it could not be true

but I replay the story now

searching for some missed clue

 

he spoke of death and destruction

he spoke of shining gold

we worried more about the man

than for the tale he told

 

but those ominous words haunt me

now that she does no more

and the story's not over yet

we know there will be more

 

looking back now upon that day

I wish we could have known

that what he'd seen would lead to this

without her I'm alone

 

and we are all drifting apart

each coping in our way

I just wish that we could return

to that last care-free day