And So She’s Gone

And so she’s gone
freed from a world
where she never found
the safe place she craved
but stayed in her secure box
not daring to walk through
its wide open door.

Kept home by her father
except to attend school
his long final illness
forced her out to work
in an alien culture
a strange new world.

Marriage after his death
brought her to a culture
of home, husband, children.

Her husband, proud of supporting
his family kept her at home
with her woman’s work
in a street with few
young families nearby.

Cautious tentative steps
into women’s afternoon meetings
never filled the gulf inside her.

Her children went out to work,
lived with other young room mates
produced partners and children,
but never filled her
inner chasm of loneliness.

Now her ashes are scattered
over the flowered patchwork
of the city park.

She is released.


Previously posted May 2016.