Runaway

I’m not your fragile flower

Not the delicate creation

You had so hoped I would become

I’ll never be the glass-winged butterfly

You take down from your shelf

To show the world how beautifully

You’d helped to forge my wings

From ice and fire

I’ve chosen not to let you mold me

Leaping from your potter’s wheel

Clay dripping from my skin

I’ll find my own way home

Not by the path you’d force me down

But through the woods and past the stream

While feeling every breath

Without your blessing

I’ll never trip over the roots

Though you’d cautioned me

They’d reach out for my feet

And I won’t drown within the waters

As they whirl and twist and sway

I won’t be frozen by the snowfall

Or captured in the talons

Of a darkly feathered bird

I won’t fall out of the trees I climb

And if I do, I’ll land in buoyant grass

Then rest until I want to catch my breath

I won’t be frightened by the clouds

Or fear I may be watched by hidden eyes

Indentured by a timeworn deity

I never chose to know

And never wanted to indulge

I have escaped from every nightmare

Every make-believe constraint

You’d have me fear for all my life

My field has daffodils and roses

Fern grows wild from every tree

And ivy covers every stone I place

Upon this wall I’ve built

With all my truth

I’ve discovered every grace

You never wanted me to know

Because you couldn’t understand their voice

I’ll sing out loud and dance inside the rain

Be the fairy in the garden

Beside the swing that shared my childhood

And listen to the wind

Only the wind