In Just One Moment

A Poem by Jessica R.

Just for a second, I took a breath.
A car crashes,
A bomb explodes,
A person dies.
All this in a rush of empty air,
As if I stole their last gasp.

Just for a minute, I rest my eyes.
A broken heart,
An empty phrase,
A suicide.
All this in a short phantom dream,
As if I it was all a planned accident.

Just for an hour, I took a walk.
An elderly man,
An innocent child,
A hungry heart.
Only these, and my life is changed forever,
As if by a coincidence.

Just for a day, I spend time with him,
The elderly man.
And he teaches me all the reasons to these -
A car crashing, a bomb exploding, everything.
But in just this day.
He is lost to me, forever.

Just for a month, I visit the innocent child.
And he teaches me all these -
Love and how to love, then more.
But in just this week,
He, too, is lost within society.

Just for a year, I feed the hungry heart.
And he teaches me all these -
Selflessness, compassion, and an eternity more.
Yet just one phrase he utters in this year,
Wanders in my mind.

Just for a lifetime, I think about that phrase.
"How can you be happy,
Living in a world so wrongly raised?"
And just now do I realize that these words
Have become the truest breath that I have ever taken.