Broken Dreams

I walk alone.

The thunder rolls, and the lightning flashes, the rain starts to come down harder than ever. Lightning flashes again, and the lights all around me go out. The tall buildings look cold and empty. I keep my head down and walk. 

I walk alone.

I walk down a street and pass people who stop and stare. Whispering behind their hand. I can hear their whispers in my head. Voices talking about how great I could have been. My lost potential.

I walk alone.

All I see for miles are the feet of those voices and, on the cracked sidewalk, pieces of my career and my dreams strewn. Playbills with my name crossed out and replaced by another. Pencils, markers, music, microphones. I see feet. People treading my my hopes and dreams. My talent. I could see it all  being sucked beneath their feet.

I walk alone.

I look up once and see a half finished marquee with the lights empty and the backboard dark and lifeless. The sky is crying for me. I look up as drops fall onto my face. I start to cry.

I walk alone.

I feel the eyes of the people around me as I stare into the dark sky. I can't bare it any more. I put my head down and run. Pushing people out of my way, their words bouncing out my my ears, their eyes continuing to follow me. I need to get out of the city. I need to get home.

I run alone.

I've run so far. without taking a look back or forward. Who am I? What am I to become now that my dreams are shattered? 

I'm running down a familiar street. Wanting desperately to escape into my world and never face the outside again. 

Here.

It should be right here. 

I arrive at the place where I grew up. I look up for the first time in miles...But it's not there. I see the ashes of a past crumbling in the rain. My life. My home. My dreams.

Gone.

I walk alone.