Coming Back

Leaving is as easy as turning around

Putting one foot in front of the other

Walking away from a life outgrown

As easy as handing the movers a check

As easy as putting your foot on the gas

As easy as not writing this poem

Letting it fade out of your mind

 

It’s coming back that’s the hard part

After you have changed from a year away

Coming back to people who seem the same

Leaves the conversation silent and awkward

It’s the trail you have hiked before

It’s going on a date with an ex

It’s the poem you once hailed as

The greatest thing ever written and

Realizing the metaphors lack substance

 

So now that I am back

In a place that my memory

Has frozen for a year

I find myself falling back into

The arms of bad habits

That have long been kicked

I need something to remind me

Of the person I have become

Since I watched everything

I once knew fade away in the

Rear-view mirror of a jeep liberty

 

This year I shed the skin of my past

Tattooed ‘I am enough’ across my chest

Let the storm clouds of my own insanity

Wash me back to solid ground

My body has gone through Dialysis

Cleansed of my own insecurity

When you laugh and joke about

My decision to try to become a better person

Know you are blowing me off course

So, if you don’t support the decision

I have made to cleanse my lungs

And to let people be who they are

Without judgment bellowing

From my diaphragm, then I don’t

Want you to be a part of my life

 

And on the nights I fall

Like iron into the ocean

Please remind me,

That my breathe is worth more

Than its weight in pirates gold

When my skin tears open like a gift

Remind me that I can be Christmas morning

In the middle of summer

I will hang veins like tinsel

Skin for stockings

Because coming back

Is talked about as being the ultimate failure

People say you couldn’t hack it

In a new environment so you have

Returned to a past truth

 

So you should know this

I have not failed

Because that would mean I am staying

That I have given up on dreams

Bigger than you could ever become

And people have entered my life

That make me want be better

Be the person I want to grow into

This summer I am only visiting

Author's Note

This poem has taken me a long time to write and I'm actually really proud of it!

Reviews

[The dark story]

"wow.this is really a very nice poem......
" Let the storm clouds of my own insanity
Wash me back to solid ground"
i liked these lines the most.......i even like the theme of the poem too ..nice work!!!!!!!

[Adam M. Snow]

Amazingly Awesome

[Shimmerbliss/CAF]

Wow! I loved this all the way through. So many lines I connected with. This speaks to me of trying to break away and start over and how difficult that is when you have a history somewhere, or with some people. There are those who don't want to see you change, for whatever reason. There are also those, who sometimes like us to be down, or lost, or whatever to make them feel better about themselves. I love where you wrote,

"Because coming back
Is talked about as being the ultimate failure
People say you couldn’t hack it
In a new environment so you have
Returned to a past truth"
those lines really spoke to me about something I think that I never connected before...I get it.

Even if what I got was not exactly what you intended...I enjoyed it very much, and come away with a feeling of...what is it? .... pressing on, trusting oneself, feeling a bit outcast and yet whole...I'm not much good in this review. I can bumble around, but I wanted you to know that this poem had a lot of meaning for me, and that I FELT it.

[Lucas Jay]

Thank you so much. That is all I ask of my poetry that someone else feels it!

[Shimmerbliss/CAF]

I did.