I'm Leaving Home

I lost my patience

with those dirty,

violent, mean

tenement lined streets

a long time ago,

and I'm never

going back.

 

But, even though

I left, I lived on

the razor's edge

forever feeling

the keen strokes

of failure

as they flagellated

me in continued

Catholic persecution.

 

Flight from such

torment was never

simple,

for each time

I breached the

perimeter walls

there, with a gentle smile,

was my next disaster,

beckoning me

with open arms,

full lips

and firm breasts.

 

And like a love sick fool

I fell,

again and again,

as winter, spring,

summer and fall

left part of my innocence,

part of my soul,

behind each time.

 

Now I am tired,

so tired,

I just want

to play sax,

learn to waltz

and scuba dive

till my heart

reaches the

crest of destiny's

waves

and I fall

into a more permanent

furrow.

 

09/09/19

Author's Note

Reviews

[Barbara Walker]

Bravo, I really like this one!

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you Barbara.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

There's a saying, "Wherever you go, there you are." It is so true. We are a composite of all life experiences, places, people, thoughts, and deeds. We can hardly lose the shadow that follows wherever we go.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Yes I guess that is true. Many thanks for sharing Linda Marie.

[Coyote Poetry]

Me too John.
"Now I am tired,
so tired,
I just want
to play sax,
learn to waltz
and scuba dive
till my heart
reaches the
crest of destiny's
waves
and I fall
into a more permanent
furrow.
I know where to go. Port Austin, few people and lake Huron. Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry.
Coyote

[John Alexander McFadyen]

They sound idyllic Coyote John. Many thank you.

[Coyote Poetry]

You would like. One road in and out. Look-up Port Austin, tip of the thumb of Michigan. Three block downtown. You are welcome John.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

great song...She's leaving Home.
yes, persecution is for no one to have to have to suffer.
this reminds me of what happened to NY after we left...what happened to the city...and how it deteriorated...
but to be persecuted for religious views? can't imagine the heartbreak of that.
and the poet's disgust that is evident here...so glad you vented in this poem...
it has power, John,
j.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you Jacob, our paths seem littered with similarities lol!

[Eilis]

Oh, I really like the way this all comes together at the end. The whole thing seems to fall like dominoes from stanza to stanza, and then there's that bit of resolve or hope at the end. The ability for creative pursuits to inject meaning into life barring the arrival of the inevitable end.

I love that idea. As it was, I felt the pressure of the leaving and losing and all that meant to be intense, so I enjoyed the inherent idea that the tired spirit still finds the zest of life in learning. That was how it seemed to me today, at any rate.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Exactly as I set out Eilis. Leaving home was meant to end the suffering but falling from grace again and again............many thanks.