No one ever accused me of being a poet and I’m not going to pretend I know anything about the craft. I’m submitting a poem this month because that’s all that came to me after being sick and in quarantine for 10 days (missed 4 days of work). I am now going to try to read all the IWSG Day posts I missed from people who visited my blog and then I’m going to try to read as many of the WEP entries as I can (I will likely fall short of reading all the entries before the deadline, but it is what it is). It’s been a rough 2 weeks and I wrote this poem to help combat my feelings of being overwhelmed.
~
My Way
I looked around one day,
And realized, I’d lost my way.
There was no path for me to follow,
But there were footprints in the hollow.
So many legacies left behind,
One would help me discover mine.
All I had to do, was take a step,
A step or two in someone else’s shoes.
But which way to go, which prints to try,
The ones too big, you can’t reach that high.
Or the ones so small, there’s nowhere more to grow.
Perhaps the ones, long and narrow,
Full of fears you can never know.
I looked around, overwhelmed with choices,
Big ones, small ones, deep ones, shallow ones.
The prints were my only way forward,
Regrets of a wrong choice, I could not afford.
Then I saw it, one pair on their own.
Footprints leading away from the rest.
Up the side of the hollow floor,
Footprints creating a new path never worn.
Someone brave enough to climb up and out,
To seek a path of their own without doubt.
But would I go that way, or would I stay?
Stay with familiar prints going the usual ways.
Each path led to a future unclear,
But those prints represented that 1% fear.
That small chance that could be good or bad,
While the other prints were safe and clear.
Perhaps to fear regrets that have not come,
Is the problem that I took on.
Any path could work if I chose it,
If I rose above and didn’t abuse it.
I looked at the footprints once more,
I’d made up my mind which way to go.
I’d go my own way and leave my legacy,
Perhaps my path would help someone like me.
~
FCA- 284-words- My Way 2019 Copyright © Toinette J. Thomas
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