Leap

The girl who sits within this room,
You do not know at all.
Six months ago when she wrote last,
Three months before her fall.
Three people I have been this year,
None of the three alike.
Summer, fall, and present each the
First, second, third strike.

A stranger to me, practically,
He saw into my heart.
I couldn't fool Him with facade,
Not even from the start.
A smile in my direction once
Or twice was all it took,
To know I was remembered here:
A page in someone's book.
When all else failed and finally
I was prepared to flee,
I stopped and saw Him there and turned
My back on Tennessee.
If I could mark the one thing that
He did to save me then:
He cared enough to listen to me
When I called again.


The same hometown, we never spoke
A word before that day,
But somehow I innately knew
That in my heart She'd stay.
Never once with second thought,
She offered me Her days;
She saw through lies and tear-dried eyes
And each distracted gaze.
With open ears and caring heart,
She nursed me through each week,
Directed me to each new face,
When I still feared to speak.
In making sure I always had
Something to get me by,
She saved me from myself, She was
The first to hear my cry.

and then I took a flying leap.

Bound by old relationships
My eyes were blinded fast
My mind collapsed within itself
To parasite the past.
A sick subject of puppetry
Ruled by no one but self,
The shell of my own entity
Displayed upon the shelf.
Definition inhaled from
A life in other lands,
Unaware that answers were
Within my own, pale hands.
I cut the strings that held me there,
And brought myself to life
To let all things resolve themselves,
No longer slave to strife.

(Original 2009)