Beginnings and Ends

Heartfelt, a tribute to the forgotten.

It began with a cobblestone path;
It ended with a plain flat stone of gray marble.

It began with a silent child and a crying woman,
hard-soled shoes clanking against wet cobblestone,
a basket and a blanket hanging in an arm,
heavy with the new life contained within.
It began with an old woman, her face perpetually
sewn into a frown by the disappointment life gave her,
her words donned with resentment from lost hope,
her eyes stained with the hatred of a broken system.

It ended with a silent old man, his own tears
sticking to his face like a stubborn morning dew--
belonging to another time, to another place.
His own heart stopping as an ache overwhelmed.
It ended without hope, without love, without joy.
It ended in silence, in darkness, in fear, alone.
A wonder had struck him, a sad “What if?”
What if he had fallen, if he had struck the bottom,
if he had found love and love died, if he had known
what love is?

It began with a woman whose hope was her child;
It ended with an old man whose tears were for its loss.