The Way Back

Sometimes you walk
away from yourself
for years, convinced
that what you’re building
is your life,
unable anymore
to tell your own voice
from all the many voices
you’ve tried on,
unable to hear
your own voice
at all.

And you know now
the route back
will be terrible,
through every tender wasteland
you’ve been desperate
to avoid,
and with all
your many defenses
dropped
right here
in a pile where you stand,
where you finally
turned around
and said,
“Enough.”

No telling how long
this journey will take
or how much of you
it will cost.
But in this moment
some part of you knows
you have everything you need
to begin:
the compass arrow
of longing
tugging at your chest,
and the firm commitment
it’s taken you
all these years
to make—

that whatever the distance
you will take
every last step
back to where your soul
has kept the fire burning
and will never
let it die.