I Am Going.

I am going, with broken ankles and tiny bags,

back to that city - the one that feels like home
The one that promised dancing and a body freed for the first time.
I am going to that place where I found who I am.

I am going for I know that the lack of those who travel there will let me find my own
to be unobstructed, unswayed by feet that have walked that other path a million times

And it's long to walk and nothing to see ahead 

yet that is all of the point -
to go where most fear to tread

knowing the road may never end, but may only become anew

where each march is its own shout of freedom.

I am going away - away from the screams that can't follow me there

the ones that ripped apart my body, my heart
The screams that made a home no longer one
But with every falling footstep, the screams loosen their hold in my mind.

I am going, along the ginger paved path,

with the leaves that are crisp with autumn's air
their crunch the only voice, a choir of encouragement
but these ginger crunches are nothing but my own.

I am going, where it may be lonely, 

but where dancing on these leaves feels holy

I lose my shoes, the last of my ties, for the earth deserves bare feet - 

and as my toes hit the ground again, my legs begin to run
and this is how I feel alive, pushing my heart to catch up with my legs
and the last of my bags falling.

A car could carry me faster

Money would carry me farther

But my body is light, my soul is good, and my heart beats with love.

and I smile as I race by all the things that have fallen by the wayside -

reminders of how far I have gone

And so, still, I am going.