Grief Displaced

I look at pictures on the wall,
unmarred by death-borne grief
from the day the monster ate New York,
but I slipped through its teeth.

The dirt is dry - no longer fresh -
on victims dead and gone,
but living victims still remain,
yet somehow, I'm not one.

I do not feel the World's distress.
I curse my cheerful mind.
I've moved on; the world has not,
yet I feel left behind.

But sooner or later comes the day,
obscure to all but me,
when my heart is eaten by a monster
that only I can see.

Time and tide swirl on around me;
I bear my grief alone.
I missed the day that claimed so many,
But now my friend is gone.

No memorial marks his rest.
His funeral, just a puff.
Only Heaven cries beside me,
but thank God, it's enough.