THEY WERE WRONG

They were wrong to tell me I need a man to keep me safe,

To protect me.

My whole life I have been conditioned to believe that you were the one,

the one who would keep me out of harm's way.

But how?

How could you do that?

When you run the moment danger pokes its head in the door.

The last memory I have

Is counting the endless stars,

Waiting for the first light as you faded to black.

Suddenly,

I wake up

On a two-lane road,

With crackled pavement

And faded flaxen lines

The sun is rising between the mountain peaks,

An engine grumbles in the distance,

Approaching where I am waiting on the sidelines,

I expect you to stop,

Instead you whiz past,

Leaving me abandoned and alone,

Next thing I know, I am running

Running after you

The souls of my shoes echo as they smack down on the concrete,

And my lungs have long since forgotten the taste of a full breath,

It is not enough,

I could run the length of the world three times around,

And it still wouldn't be enough.

Nothing is ever enough,

Except the emptiness that the bottom of the bottle brings,

For you it is only enough to forget,

Never to remember.