Tag: personal reckoning

  • The Mess I Made

    Well, the path I’m takin’

    is narrow and worn,

    lined with the ghosts

    of choices I swore

    wouldn’t follow me home.

    And the mess it’s makin’—

    I see it now.

    In the people I loved

    from too far away,

    in the promises bent

    until they finally snapped.

    My heart’s been breakin’ for years,

    quietly at first,

    like a house settling into itself,

    then all at once—

    walls giving way,

    everything exposed to the weather.

    I kept walkin’ anyway,

    tellin’ myself damage meant movement,

    that pain was proof

    I was still alive.

    I learned how to survive storms

    by pretending I was one.

    But every mile adds weight,

    and every night asks

    what I’m really runnin’ from.

    I’m tired of mistaking destruction

    for direction,

    tired of calling this loneliness

    freedom.

    So if there’s mercy left

    on this road I chose,

    I hope it meets me

    before the break becomes permanent.

    Because my heart—

    though cracked and tired—

    is still beating,

    still hoping

    there’s another way forward

    that doesn’t cost me myself.