A Mountain To Freedom

(Written October 2021)

With tears on cheeks so sticky and warm,

With hopes and dreams now tattered and torn.

Inside of a home, a child lays and weeps,

And above her head, the trees whine and creak.

A miserable form, cold and so heavy

In a warm little house, on a pile of damp bedding

The tears that have dribbled from eye to pillow

Bent with the weariness of an old weeping willow

And I wish I could say that life gets better

That life keeps on going, no matter the weather

But in the corner with fluff are some blades nice and sharp

And she wonders if pain could remove the echoing harp

The words in themselves are but blades in hands

And the hands belong to a rather ruthless band

Of family and friends and those barely known

But each who have rocks ready to be thrown

Her issues, it seems, have a similar source

To the tears she’s cried and the horrible hoarse

Yelling of her father, crying of the daughter

And both uncertain of the feelings of the other

The daughter has hatred, disappointment she’s grown into

And the father has love, misunderstood in his attempts to

Show the feelings that seem better off alone

Upon piles of misery that make a bad home

And if she could escape for a moment or two

Perhaps she could figure out what to do

But moments alone are spent on-edge and in tatters

While with others she simply grows tired and battered

The world wants to get her. It’s simple, you see

She feels just as much pain as you and me

But perhaps her hopes, her dreams can make more

Than what the towers of pain and despair have in store

But upon mountains growing higher and higher

Lies a little girl, broken, battle-worn and tired

With an arm outstretched, spread fingers to the sky

She whispered, “you know, how I try and I try.”

She talked to the breeze, to the wind in the trees

To the sun or the moon with much more ease

Than a human next to her or to feelings discovered

Next to the pain and heartache that she repeatedly uncovered

Every turn holds a piece to a puzzle of life

And it doesn’t come easy, there is agony and strife

But tears look like crystals, and if you compare you may see

There’s beauty in the ashes, there’s you and there’s me

I can’t tell you you’re alright, I can’t tell you you’re fine

But I can tell you that until you cross that dark line

That line to give up and that line to end it all

Until you decide that you’re done and you fall

Not to get up, not ever again

Until then, I tell you, it is not the end

One foot before another, one breath before the next

And perhaps you’ll be cut a few times as a test

But for as long as you hurt and you bleed crimson red

You and I know that there’s life where you tread

There’s life in your tears, in the wishes you leave

Upon every avalanche and every overturned leaf

You’re alive, little human, broken as you might be

You live, you breathe, that’s life that you see

And the throb of the pain, in your arm or your chest

Is another breath you have withstood the test

So battle, young broken, battle with will

Fight this long test you’ve been given until

The girl in that house, upon that mountain high

Proves to you that you don’t have to try and try

Until she tells you that life isn’t the air you breathe

Until she tells you that the living aren’t you and me

But never forget that the words people speak

Aren’t always words of truth, of wonder and peace

They can be words of battle, words of pain

Words that don’t mean quite what they are saying

And expressions that ease upon admission of love

Provided from a Creator, way up above

I see you, young human, I see your little life

I see your battles, so full of strife

I forgive you your grievances, I forgive you the lies

I forgive you the hurt you’ve inflicted while trying

To just be a bit stronger, just stronger today

And I know you must fight it so hard everyday

So I forgive you the love that you showed oh so wrongly

And I forgive you the pain that I feel when I’m sobbing

For I am the girl, up on that mountain

And I haven’t stopped breathing, haven’t stopped countin’

The days I’ve survived and lived up to my goal

To never, ever, ever, tell a soul

"You aren’t worth living," not a lie like that

Or a name that implies you are less than a gnat

For you are human, you are like me

We’re broken and beautiful. We’re lively. We’re free.