The Man With The Iron Heart

By

Walking past a church one day
I saw a man with his new bride,
hand in hand they stood
as if their world was free and wide.
With smiles on each face, their lives were about to start.
The scene I saw that day
put happiness in my heart.

And just one year down the road
walking on a beach,
I saw a man standing there, standing all alone.
He was the man from outside that church one day, just one year ago,
but the only hand he was holding, appeared to be his own.
I walked up to him, slowly, just to say hello
With tears running down his face
he said, why, how could you know.
His wife had left and ran away
and his world fell apart.
The man standing on the beach that day,
said he was the man with the iron heart.

That last part I didn’t understand
until I had a story of my own.
You see, there was a girl I loved very much,
whose name will remain unknown.
Every time I felt her touch
I just knew she was the one.
And every time I saw her face
my eyes would fill with love.
I could picture me outside that church one day
standing next to my new bride,
until that day she said,
that she was no longer mine.
And with those words that came from her
I felt a pain so deep and sharp.
My heart had turned to glass,
cracked, and fell apart.
And as I tried to carry on, living day by day,
I swept up those shattered pieces, swept them all but away.
And some time down the line, sitting in my room,
I wondered why it had been some time
since I had tried something new.
I put on my clothes and shoes and headed out the door,
until I saw in the mirror a man I had seen before.
I was sure he was a distant memory,
but I didn’t know where to start,
until I saw that the man staring back at me
was the man with the iron heart.

I had picked up those broken pieces
and locked them deep away
into an iron little prison
where they were surely safe to stay.
Putting them back together
was far too hard to try,
I had told myself it was no use
and tried to live that lie.
But my story wasn’t ending,
it had just begun,
I remembered a little girl
whose love was second to none.
She was born my baby sister
but I loved her as if she was mine,
You see, when I heard her voice
my chest began to shine.
And as soon as I saw her smile
I knew everything was fine,
because even as I write this
and we’re so far apart,
that little girl’s love
gave me a brand new heart.