Nowhere To Turn Away

You carried the
sentiment a cancer
within for each day
courted after a
rude awakening –

a schooling in
innocence completed
when innocence was
sacrificed to
abject apathy.

Listened to ghostly
voices sing sotto voce
chorales countering each
new reality with elaborate
constructions

growing more fragile and
dreamlike; avoided hard
answers and dark places,
sought soft curves
and warm cavities.

Your feet did not move from
the sweet earth they grew in;
roots hold you firm, unwavering
where wild winds tear
lesser anchors free.

You bear your pain
with stolid gravity;
face the way
you will return.
Nowhere to turn away.
© 18 October 2007, I. D. Carswell