Freeland

Freeland                1/4/2018

Once I felt human

But now I am a rag

Less than a worm

Crawling over glass.

It didn’t happen overnight

That I was discarded

Excluded by degrees

And shoved out the door.

Traded away

For temporary convenience

And kicked down the path

Of least resistance.

Indifferently dismissed

Out of familiarity

For all purposes

Forgotten Posts

And estranged.  

Switched off like a light

And crossed off the page

In a single solitary flourish

Totally erased

Like I never lived at all.

Stained on my forehead

And indelibly marked

Like an unwanted heap

Of odious refuse.

I tried to scrub it off

But I could never shed

This suit of skin

Weighed, measured

And dismissed out of hand. 

Time streams endlessly

Though the numberless hours

As we inch forward

One foot in front of the other.

Wounds heal

And scars fade

But regardless of distance

The shame endures

And always remains. 

Instantly recalled

By the smallest

Of happenstances

The humiliation of rejection

Sharp and painful. 

Unforgettable the loss

Total and catastrophic

The destruction of worlds

That we once knew. 

So what are we to do

With feelings such as this?

Awkward, painful

Jagged and raw.

For me

It took a long time

To fully grasp and know

That I had to turn it over

The other way around. 

To pick it all up

And turn it in

To something else

The indomitable courage

To grow. 

If you have lost everything

Then now you are free

Free to do anything

Regardless of threat

Or punishment. 

Free to speak the truth

And free to walk away

Leaving evil to its nature

Drowning in blood. 

Shout it loud

Without equivocation

Unafraid

And unashamed. 

Anything is possible

For the courageous

And the few

If they are willing to stand

For what is right

And what is true.