Not Alone

What words here can be offered?
What is there left to say?
What questions need an answer
Where answers naught be found?

When words are softly spoken
To my ears by pained hearts
What comfort can be offered
If no better place I’ve found?

A sympathetic ear
A shoulder soft to cry on
Offer only shallow comfort
But do little for their wounds

I watch each tear streak down
See pain etched in pale skin
But what change can soon I offer,
When I’ve sketched scars the same?

For sharing their discomforts
Having been through common hurt
Offers neither them nor I
Much more than just the notion

That pain is universal
And where they are we have all stood
Although no difference does that make
At least we aren’t alone