HOPE

As I walk on this dirt road 
Old memories start to unleash
They envelope me
Consuming all my dreams

I think of her again
And every other person I have been
I look back and realize
I was absent from my own life

My knees feel like giving in 
The horrors keep creeping in
A road to nowhere
This is more than just a sentence
This is exile from my own being

They robbed so much of my life
For me there was no spring
No morning dew
No rain
Just a desert
Yet it felt like winter

The song of a bird brings me back 
The sound of the ocean ignites my fire
Hope invades my lungs
And I realize, this is my life

As my steps quicken I start to undress
I let the wind caress my breasts
As I submerge I feel the waves
They welcome me like an old friend

Just like that my world transforms
Just like that I claim my power back
My wounds may still bleed at times
But I won't let them break me

I will tend to them and mend them
I will not deny my pain
I will not reject the ones who got hurt
I will embrace them until they are no longer scare

As I wrap my arms around myself
My heart rejoices and my body vibrates
Like earth reborn after a fire 
My spirit is now fertile
I will plant it with oak tress and flowers
My garden I will tend 
For this is my life
And this will not be my end.

Sofia E. Falcone