"Love cannot be learned except within the classroom of respect"

-- H. Vanoy Barton

Alone

by
H. Vanoy Barton

He tread amongst the great, broke bread with the destitute, brother to the forlorn, confidant to king and tramp, arrived early, arrived late, walked through Hollywood's gates, slept in thousand dollar hotel suites, slept in the streets. Love was his creed, deed, and stamp.

Spent his days trying, spent his nights crying, decades pacifying. Forsaken, he lays dying.

Alone in a littered side street, unloved and unkissed, never known, always alone, amidst the filth rats call home, a man breathes a final shallow breath.

The world's punishment for loving thy neighbor is solitary death.