Everything Vanishes

I see you running down the road,
Shouting at me with joy,
With your arms outstretched,
I'm happy to see you too,
So I open my arms in welcome,
Hoping to feel your warm embrace,
Wishing to smell your sun-kissed hair,
And desiring greatly to kiss those fair lips,
But before we reach each other,
You disappear before my very eyes,
And everything around me vanishes,
Replaced by vast and endless darkness.

I look around in panic,
Just wanting to wake up in my own bed,
I hear shouting behind me,
I turn and see all my friends,
Calling me to them,
I run toward them,
Feeling relieved that I am not alone,
In this forsaken patch of blackness,
But before I can get to them,
They too disappear before my very eyes,
Leaving me on my own again,
To contend with permanent darkness.

Then I see my family,
They too call me toward them,
Everyone is there, even the big man,
Even though he has been dead five years,
But I don't question why he is there,
I just run as fast as I can to them,
Hoping beyond hope,
That they wouldn't vanish too,
But then they did, and I start to cry,
Wondering why I have been brought to this cruel place,
Trying to think of someone I know who would play such evil tricks,
And hoping that I am just having a horrible nightmare.

But then the truth is revealed,
The darkness disappears,
And suddenly I find myself looking down,
At where I was standing,
When I saw you running to me,
But I am not standing anymore,
I am lying, spread-eagled, on the ground,
Everyone I just saw vanish before my eyes,
Are crowded around me crying,
The ambulance men put me in a body-bag,
I am, quite clearly, dead,
And I never got to feel your loving embrace...

To me, that's the saddest thing of all.