Friend, Don’t tell me how to run my race.
Just because you can’t reach
the finish line doesn’t mean
I have to stall in second place,
slinking in your shadow
since you “know what’s best
for me.”
I stand on my own feet,
I run to who I choose.
I will dance, I will fly, even
if I pass you by. Keep up
or I’ll leave you in the dust.
Upon this wall I sit and watch the tide
roll in and out, affection for the sand
as indecisive as your touch. Your hand
grazes mine. Is it true we really tried?
Perhaps I missed it when you tried to hide.
Your touch lingers, and I feel it demand
a part of me that no longer can stand.
Was this love just far too long denied?
But there was something here, and it still is
alive somewhere inside our broken hearts.
This poem is far too sentimental,
And yet I feel somewhere, somehow that this
needs to be said, before we fall apart
and crash into the waves that we feel call.
Lone Tree - Rachel Schneider
Medium:
Calligraphy pens on paper
There’s a candle in my window for
the boy who never was.
It flickers just as brightly as
the laughter in his eyes. The warmth
inside his heart is matched by nothing
but the flame, and the tiny drips
of melted wax, intricate as his mind.
The candle burns to mourn this boy,
the one I could have loved.
He may have lived - this boy, indeed.
But mine he never was.
The giver of blood and love is fragile
as it beats faint within the fold of your
broken breast. The giant’s grass of the forest
sways gently in the wind, unaware of your
selfish weight crushing the earth below.
You used to dance with grace as light as a breeze
among the blossoms of spring, but now you
have been stripped and knocked down, lying
heavy in the cold dirt of disenchanted
winter. You bury yourself in the decay of your
innocence as the rain of remorse now pours down
your cheeks. The one who did this to you feels no
regret. You let him take the silver trinkets
from your pain-streaked body and he
hung them from the bedpost that he might
admire those trophies of his conquest.
You have given up that blissful ignorance that you
once held so dear. Now you must stand alone and
face the world, for he is not there to lift you.
There is no changing what has been done.
There’s a candle in my window for
the boy who never was.
It flickers just as brightly as
the laughter in his eyes. The warmth
inside his heart is matched by nothing
but the flame, and the tiny drips
of melted wax, intricate as his mind.
The candle burns to mourn this boy,
the one I could have loved.
He may have lived - this boy, indeed.
But mine he never was.
I said I never want to see you again
(with anyone but me). The jazz
from the record player challenges
you to leave. Your words break my
bones (but your kisses are a splint).
Believe me, I can live without you
(if I’m already dead). I swear I’ll
go on if you leave (everyone else
behind). Push and sway in time,
give away your heart (it’s mine).
Forgive and forget is so cliché.
I say never give away the past.
The church is cold as I perch on my pew.
The heater is broken again, third time
this winter. The preacher has begun his
sermon, but all I hear is the silence of your
absence.
My phone rings. It should turn it off,
especially since it’s playing our song.
I know it’s you. I shouldn’t answer.
I stand and duck out to the lobby.
I know judgmental looks are following me.
Your hesitant hello send heat coursing
through my frozen veins, awakening
my stifled senses. Brother Phillip’s
voice echoes over the loud speaker,
but his words are as distant as God.
All I hear is your heavy breathing.