Lonely Man

The ways of the world are breaking me in two.
One half is drowning. The other half is swimming.
One half is helpless. The other is happy.
The happy man worries about the drowning man.
The happy man is good with words.
The drowning man detests words.
He never talks. He met the happy man at a party.
He had no idea what he was going to say.
The happy man had stolen all his words.

"We will fight the worst of our fears," the happy man was saying.
"I can't even make sense of a stop sign," thought the helpless man.
"Sometimes I feel like there's something missing."
"I feel like there's something missing all the time."
"What brings you to this party?" asks the happy man.
"I wanted to steal my words back," says the drowning man.
"I can't give them to you that easily," says the happy man.
"My life is a mess. I've said that much. Now all I want is a few words."
"What makes you think words are the answer?"
"They are my foundation. Without words I am bereft of life."
"I always thought there were more important things."
"Well there are not."
"O.K. Here are some coins. Here's a penny, a nickel, and a dime.
Start out with the penny. Let things fall down on you.
Let wheels, bottles, and bowls fall from the sky.
It might hurt, but you have to get used to them again."
"Here, take this."
"What's this?"
"It's a dollar. These are my struggles with a novel I will never read,
a trip I will never take, and a person I will never meet."
"Thank you. Your goals are within reach.
All of them can be done with pennies, nickels, and dimes."

Both men went away happy though neither knew truly how to swim.
One was the water. The other was the coins. One was the dollar.
The other was an idea. One was the water. The other was the swimmer.