The Wrong Life
By John Herlihy

When surrounded by hardship and strife,
He felt he had strayed into the wrong life.
What raises this fear ringing as an alarm bell?
Cowardice buried deep within some inner well.
He could endure being sick or lost on the way;
But other things materialized to have their say.
Treachery would often raise its monster head,
Unmasking the ugly face of a fiend well-fed.
Betrayal stung with the cold slap of a whip,
Drawing bitter gall with poison captured in a sip.

Deceits bestowed upon him that he didn’t deserve,
Hadn’t he always held himself completely in reserve?
If people could lie so genially across the table,
Of what other deceptions might they be capable?
Rejection crassly broke down the walls of his heart,
Leaving him lonely, on his own and worlds apart.
Hatred cut him open and laid him bare,
Thrown off and laying on the ground, just anywhere.
He had no strength against the power of indifference,
Making him feel cheap, not worth much of a pittance.

These things should happen to anyone but him,
The wrong life just feels like another person’s whim.