You do not know what is going on inside of other people
Even the ones who listen to all your secrets
Even those with awards for how good they mix drinks
And how present they are with others
Sometimes
You discover
They cannot bring that same comfort to themselves
Or… they convince themselves they can’t
Until it becomes true
And you find yourself in their apartment weeks after their gone
Looking at their tailored suits
And still feeling them there
None of us knew what was going to happen
We suspected things were
Bad but he seemed like he was headed somewhere
A new city
A different climate
He seemed like he was going
I remember his face at Christmas time as he came out of the elevator on the second floor
He cooked us all Chinese food and though we told him it was delicious
It’s like he was going through the motions
It’s like he wasn’t there
He continued to show up to work
To do his job
To come up with the specials for the night
But there was so much more going on
Than what he felt comfortable
Sharing
I wish I had worked harder
At building trust with him
Maybe he’d still be here
I’m sure all of his co-workers feel that way
That they could have done
More
But it was his silence
About what was really going on
That took him before he was going to
Leave
Adam
I miss you
You were good
We need to build a New Orleans in which people feel comfortable going to each other
When rock bottom
Hits
Instead of this world in which we almost all
Intervened
But we didn’t
We didn’t know how
Our society has forgotten
How to go about those things
Will we ever live in a world again in which we save
One another?