Setting out


Teenage years;
a time to set out
with a suitcase full
of hopes and dreams
and with some angst
about making your way
in the world.


Yet some of us set out
alone and scared
with a suitcase full only
with anxiety and doubt.


Our only hope
that we’ll somehow
get by. 



***

You left him for another man
different but the same
and off I went again
spiraling downwards
as emotions
and memories
flooded up
and all the while
I couldn’t stop thinking
about the question why
didn’t you leave the bastard years ago?