An Illumined Future

What a contrast amidst chaotic weeks

To hear something you created held the power

To affect another to the point of tears

All that striving to fit into the life

Someone else dreamed for you,

The way you run yourself ragged

Where you don’t belong,

Doing work that subtly—or overtly

Hides the light that shines in you.

But now, as you begin to emerge

No longer contained, flame turns to fire

Consuming that life not worthy of the living

Consuming all but the irreversible, indestructible

You.

Remember that first day of grad school,

The talk of flames and fire

The way that heat began to rise in your chest

Imagining an illumined future—

Alive, wild, fierce and free.

Now, as the false ground burns,

You know,

There’s no going back.