I’m casting my line far out
fishing in times that haven’t happened yet,
and in places that I’ll never be again
for thoughts that shake me,
for words that mean
anything at all

The steps are easier now,
the shackles we’ve broken
lay limp
in the earth behind us

And though each forward motion
chafes
the skin rubbed raw
where they once hung,
I’m grateful for the breeze
that stings there now.

And I don’t know where we’re going
but you can lean on me, if you like
we’ll walk together

And should there come some nights
where the echo of the past
is loud enough to hinder sleep,
I’ll be there
and so will you

to remember,
when the other can’t,
that life is waiting
and it’s beautiful

That this road yawns open,
just ahead,
the whole world
is waking up to greet us

And people will often say
their perfect day
is a bright blue horizon,

but how much brighter
the world feels,
sky busy with clouds,
and someone to share them with

Rebuilding yourself isn’t supposed to feel good
it’s supposed
to burn

to bring you
to your knees,

and for a moment
you might forget what the light looked like.

But when you re-emerge in the smoke of you,
two bold eyes
staring back from your reflection,
not a trace of darkness veiled there,
you will feel an exhilaration
you hadn’t been sure
you would ever feel again

There is a complex emotion often confused with spite
that is difficult to explain.

It is the desire to hurt someone
not because they have hurt you,
not because you want them to be in pain,

but because you desperately
want them to understand
what you’re feeling

because words can only ever do so much

Our lives are peppered with last times
Salted with the unknowing,
in each moment,
when exactly we’re Here living them.

We hope for more sunrises
For more chances to sit on the hilltop
under the moon,
hands boldly interlocked
with the people we love

but we are never guaranteed more chances
or more moments, after this one

People spend so much time trying to forget this

Trying desperately to look away
from what they think
is this sad, awful truth
that must be blurred and kicked
and buried
in the sunlight

But it is this truth and our ability to sit,
with our arm around it,
that can offer us the perspective
we sometimes need
to take the risk of living

To pursue the things in our lives
that otherwise, terrify us too much.
Because as humans we are so good
at convincing ourselves,
that we have something to lose

It is a liberation
not a curse,
to be reminded of the fleeting nature of our lives,
our own impermanence

because everything,
our fear,
our insecurity, pride, anger, and humiliation,
all of these things fall away in the face
of two words so significant,
as The End

There is
some primal part of me that yearns
for solitude

To stand alone
in the backwoods,
no possession to my name
and no thought on my mind
but where I’ll be
when daylight falls,
purple and fading,
beneath the trees