In my dilapidated house
I stole away and steeled myself
against a world more cruel and cutthroat
than I had imagined.
But fear gripped me,
choking my will
to live.

In my room, I found retreat
from shadows on the wall, memories
in the hall, reminders of my fall and the hell
it spawned. Still, artificial light
pierced my soul
with how it might
have been.

In the dark, I hid, unmoving
and unknowing, only slightly living
in a self-made cave I prayed could protect
me from stalactite pain dropping down.
But tears consumed me,
and breathing ceased
to matter.

In the crevasses of mind, I ran wild.
Echoes of love I’d been denied bounced off
the canyon walls. I ran and came to a river wide
and welcoming for me to lay upon and float
far in my imagination
to an ocean
of hope.

One day I know I will find my home
when Love itself deposits me gently on a shore
where I have always meant to be, where I am loved
and celebrated, where there are no dark rooms.
And I shall lie naked
beneath a sky
of grace.