Escape
Finally,
From the choking confines,
The cluttered debris
And piled clothes
Of her bedroom

Relief,
Coming only with
The cool night air,
Breathing softly onto her face,
Lifting her brown hair
From her bare shoulders.

Her feet click-clacking like music
On the dark asphalt,
The sky above glowering
Luminescent and orangeish purple
As the moon and the city
Burn silently against
The blanketed backdrop of clouds,
Hovering above
The distant voices and laughter
Across the fields.

She had never imagined
That she could feel like this.
“It’s all in your head,”
(as if anything ever
could be somewhere else)

A goal
That had consumed her whole life,
Working towards it,
Achievements,
Awards,
Satisfaction and success.
And suddenly she was here,
At this very point that she was sure
Her entire life had been leading up to…
Yet that lingering feeling of uncertainty…
What now?

The hollowness,
Enveloping
her
from
all around,
Choking
her
suddenly.

The promises that once
seemed so real
Falling short,
Becoming nothing more than ***** bathrooms,
Loud and late night drunks calling to her
With smelly breath
while she walked past
hurriedly,
Bodies tossing restlessly
in borrowed beds,
She was kept awake
by the mere thought of
Their faces;
A haunting horde of
ten thousand nameless humans
Shuffling past in grimy hallways.

“Am I insane now?”
she demanded an answer,
arms unfurled
up into the darkness.

But none came,
the sky remained silent,
So she just
Kept
Walking.


--Jack Singer