A passing away

why does a stranger's passing away

affect me so

I do not know

that he did it to himself?

  i imagine the despair

  as if I was there

  but i wasn’t, no one was

  left to his own

  this man that once shone

  his life in the public was inspiring

  prolific, kind, a star

  but he was at war

that we do not know?

anyone’s reality

their complications, their fragility

we still sit as jury

  we speak lightly and loud

  until there is a shroud

  then we speak in poems and eulogies

  we praise the one gone

  we introspect and we mourn 

then go on as usual and be unkind 

to the next person we see.

And that’s the real tragedy.