The Runaway Bride

The Runaway Bride

They dressed her in ivory, stitched at the seams

with borrowed lace and someone else’s dreams

She stood in a hush that hummed too loud

a stranger among the staring crowd

The bells were heavy, the aisle too long

each flower a warning she’d read all wrong

The mirror had whispered months ago

but silence is easier than telling them no

She smiled like paper, thin and neat

each step a fold she tried to repeat

But the wind came in, soft through the door

and something wild shook her to the floor

She left the bouquet on the vestry chair

pulled pins from her hair in the open air

The train of her dress caught mud and grass

as she ran through fields she used to pass

No plan, no car, no safety net

just the heartbeat she hadn’t silenced yet

They called her name, she did not turn

what she needed, they’d never learn

She isn’t a ghost or a tale to mock

not some poor girl who ran from the clock

She’s just a woman who chose to be

a little bit lost but finally free