I don’t want to die,
so I’m not going to die.
I’m not going to cave to the fear inside
that tells me
that pain—
that flutter—
is going to do me in tonight.
I’m not going to waste another second
worrying about
what might have been
or what could be.
I’m not staying here—
it’s time to let myself
be free.
And give up that
long dark drive,
believing I have a path to pave
that no one else
can understand.
Because I’ve run that route.
I’ve been that man.
And sure, I found
that when push came to shove,
I could make it through.
I could make it
without the love
of fathers or mothers,
sisters or brothers.
But I don’t want to.
I don’t need to.
And when I learned
that I could lay down the welcome mat,
what a joy to find
so many already inside my house.
Just waiting,
reminding me that the idea that anyone
has it right,
or the strength
to do it all alone,
is like the idea
that there is only one
clean light.
So know this and be happy—
you will not get it all right.
You will have dark days
and hardships beyond your imagination.
But if you reach for something that lives outside of yourself,
then you will find
that one perfect thing that’s inside of you.
The ability to bridge.
— ❧ —
Poetry Kick
I suppose I’m on a little poetry kick right now. The last two weeks, my writing process has been rudely interrupted by life, and poetry helps me find my way back. Although, I’m never really sure when I write something like this if poem is the right word for it. It belongs to itself, like a poem should, and it has some structure to it—stanzas with the same number of lines, intermittent rhyming for rhythm, etc. But I always feel like there should be another word for this kind of script. Or maybe poem is good enough and I’m overthinking it. It happens.
For more poems—some free verse and plenty with structure—head over to In Verse.