Running From the Wolves

For All of Us, and How We Sometimes Feel

​

I am a little cracked but not yet broken

Or maybe nobody ever knows

If their crack is too deep, too long

To piece it back together again

I’d like to say that I am a work in progress

But that would be a lie

The truth is

I’ve been moving backward since 2010

Gaining momentum

With each declared new failure

But maybe I’ve got it wrong

And it’s all intentional

And I’m marching back to the point

Where I went off-track

So I can take the left instead of the right

Or maybe do a full-on U-turn

And go back to the start

But what do I mean by start?

Not my birth or the day I got married

Not the day he left or the day we got divorced

Surely, there was a moment

Where one particularly bad choice

Turned into the series of events

That brought me here

We’re told that the path less traveled

Is the better of the two

But I’m so tired

Of chopping down trees, wading through frigid waters

Pulling leeches off my feet, burning ticks off my ankles

Running wildly from the coyotes and the ravens

I’m exhausted, but it’s dark

And the nights are the most dangerous of all

If I could sit down for just a few minutes

I know I’d feel better

But the wolves are circling closer

I can feel their hungry eyes upon me

The ravens are hovering, smelling my acrid sweat

Maybe if I, too, knew where I came from

I’d know where I need to return to

Maybe if I, too, knew what I was here to do

I’d know which path to take

The trick I need to pull

To get me out

Of this thick, hot night