For Rui Boy

There are tens of millions of people here now who do not have food on the table. Although this is our most pressing concern alongside a laundry list of others, I nonetheless want to remind the world of the painful loss of love that our sons and our daughters have suffered. Here is a song for the parents of those children to whom we extend our deepest solidarity and hope for a renewal of our movement for resolution and restoration.

Exodus

Showed up to Heathrow today
For the 2000th time
Got in my taxi and I learned Nick Cave's son died
The news hit me like a bus into a hill
Because once at the K-west hotel, 
I met him and his son,
They were standing across the hall
I mentioned to him how we both played Hultsfred in 1997
I don't believe in God, but sometimes I hope there's Heaven
The bad news hurt to hear, and it hurts to repeat, 
It's just sad news and I'm sorry to even speak it
I was on my way home from Perth this past March
Virgin airlines, row 23, and I watched '20,000 Days on Earth' and it inspired me
I'm very much me
And Nick Cave is very much 'He'
But we're the same in that we're both songwriters and we don't stop moving- we're like waves in the sea

I remember seeing 'Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth'
He spoke about the passing of his daughter Exodus, and how he joined "The Bereaved Parents Group."
He knew when he arrived at her bed
That he was not alone
Because the parents of the other children embraced him
And they cried in the hospital
And I remembered when Danielle Steel
Lost her son at only 19 years old to an overdose on heroin
And on his bedroom window
Still remains the sticker he put there of The Misfits
Every time I walk past her home on Washington St. I look up and I glance at it

For all bereaved parents- I send you my love
Parents survive their children
It's a pain very few know of

My cousin Carissa's
My friends Chris's, Brett's, and Dennis's
And my ex-girlfriend Katy's mom and dad
All became apart of the family of bereaved parents
And when my father was young
He lost his older brother Lenny
His mom and dad joined the bereaved parents group
My dad looks down on the ground and gets quiet whenever I mention his name
When my little second cousin Carissa died
My mother called me, it had been so long since I'd heard that certain cry
Not since the day she divorced my father
But they're friendly now so with that story I'd rather not bother. 
But I flew out there and we gathered in the living room
We all shared stories of a person of whom different amounts of depth we knew
The coffee table was filled with prescription drugs
Carissa's puppy laid at my feet and I gave Carissa's mom a hug
And she sat motionless as if there was no air
She was in a world of her own in that chair
She was the one who gave birth to Carissa and raised her- 
All we could do for her was be there
It's been two years and I know that for her some days are better, 
But the loss of a child has to be the hardest thing to bear
The loss of a child is something no parent is prepared for
The loss of a child is simply unfair

For all bereaved parents- I send you my love
And parents outlive their children is the cruelest cut
For all bereaved parents- I know that I don't know
But the pain has to be the worst nightmare blow
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love…
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love…
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love…
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love…
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love…
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love
For all bereaved parents- I send you my love…

This June passed the 11th anniversary of my honeyboy’s abduction and disappearance. A few days after that anniversary, I sat at my desk on Father’s Day in a Zoom meeting with our family and had a jovial moment wishing each other happiness before we cut the conversation short and my brothers, my father, my nephew and their families each hurried off to a drink or another meal together, and silence fell on the wires.

 

For all bereaved parents, I send you my love.