Hero's Journey

image borrowed from nara malone

Hero's Journey


This is what I wanted: a hero

Someone to help me put out the little fires
that crop up around a life

I got: you

teaching me arson
fueling flames that licked my skin
singed my ideals
consumed and scattered them
like glowing embers across a sooty sky.

This is what I wanted: a warrior

Someone on my side
Someone at my back through life's battles.

I got: you

teaching me to sow conflict
to beat the plowshare to sword
to embrace its glittering blade
as a woman sheathes her lover
turning submission to power

This is what I wanted: a savior

someone to pull me up
when life overwhelmed
someone to keep me afloat
when I was too tired to go on

I got: abandoned

dropped in the sea of your cast off dreams
left to sink or to claw my way back
from the shipwreck
of all I dreamed you'd be

This is what I wanted: you to be my hero

I got: the hero in me


Nara Malone

Posted over on her site Nara Malone
Listed as #15 over on dVerse Poets--Poetics Saturday