Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse #168
Come join us!
For a while I climbed the ladder,
not realizing I’d placed it
against the wrong house. The window
I tried to look into was a mirror.
I fell backward into the world.
-Stephen Dunn
I lost you before you were truly gone
Like money at the races or bullets from a fool’s gun
Some hurts are hard to recover from
and some places just
cannot be left behind
a lost little girl
that had never left home
still stands at the curb of a busy street
and hesitates to go
speaking up and walking away are harder than they look
no one ever explained that to me
I just learned it as I went
You see, silence preaches louder than you think
Skinned up knees leave a more enduring mark
Than road signs warning, slippery when wet
Those scars join us in the journey
We carry them along
Like children too tired to walk any further
That is how we learn strength is many things
More than lifting steal and running far
Yes, I lost you before you were truly gone
Like whiskey from a cracked bottle
That always leaves a mess behind
It took me years to see how lost that truly left me
Yet to find our true direction
We must first realize we are lost.
