Stand Up Once More

Twilight in a world half alive…

Some here believed their despair was blameless in the dead-end of hopelessness. Others simply were.

Among the many, he sat alone in the middle of a burning lake of himself, unable to escape--and perhaps, just perhaps, no longer trying.

There were little birds that landed on the bare bones of a slender tree, dying young, with a few last leaves near the top. They knocked stars of water from these into his hair, sang near his ears.

Stand up once more.

He wanted to sleep. But…

There was…still so much left to do.