Pebbles of light in shades of grey

dissolve before my eyes

Darkness clings around my soul,

 as the last light fades and dies

It’s dark, so dark, that for a while

 I think that I have gone blind

Then memories from so long ago

Start whispering in my mind

‘Do you recall the time when you

 were judged before your peers

or when you needlessly caused

so many people to shed tears?’

Do you remember a young boy

who always had a point of view

You surely should remember

for that young boy was you’

I tell the whispers to go away

and leave my poor head alone

Why do they remind me of things

For which I can never atone?

Just as I think they’ve gone away

no longer to haunt my brain

Out from a corner of my mind

the whispering starts again

‘You remember that day at school

of humiliation and shame?

and how you kept your silence

to let another take the blame

Remember the time you refused

to help out your truest friend

in his greatest hour of need

with his honour to defend?’

I beg the whispers to stop

And let me drift off into sleep

But they refuse to go away

As the dawn begins to creep

‘Remember how you turned away

as the tears ran down his face,

the bitterness he must have felt

when you offered him no solace?

Remember how he was punished

as you watched without remorse

You could have told the honest truth

but you never owned up of course

You were supposed to be his friend

yet when he looked you in the eye

Remember how you did nothing

As you stood and watched him die?’