"Dear Anna"

(by Mark Kelly Hall)

Dear Anna
I'm sorry for the way you had to leave us
I saw your dazed expression on the news
The imitation hero to the end
I wonder if you knew your time was near
In many ways you'd checked out long ago

You offered up your dignity to strangers
Tabloid headline readers, channel changers
They made an idol of your golden image
And reality was history for you


Dear Anna
I'm sorry for the ones who would admire you
For all the twisted dreams they would aspire to
And trade their very souls to find a name
With no one but their empty selves to blame
We are all so easily deceived

You told your story like a dirty joke
Your pain became a punchline, and when the laughter
broke
You couldn't hide from all those hungry eyes
That seldom saw beneath your veil of skin


Dear Anna
I'm sorry for the things I said about you
It's too easy to be cynical these days
But the hope I cling to tells a higher truth
So neither of us has a good excuse
Both victims of our choices and the sin that weighs us
down

You lost a husband, and then a son
You fought for fame and fortune and you almost won
I guess you never found what you were missing
The father to the child you always were


Dear Anna
I'm sorry



© 2007 Mark Kelly Hall