Turning

A heap of desiccated tears

Anchored here, washing away in rivulets,

Streaks on the face of the mountain.

A pillar marking the long road east,

with a vast wilderness behind.

Don’t turn around, they told me,

Don’t watch the destruction of home, family, and friends.

Pretend it isn’t happening as we flee, panting, mouths set in Os.

Only by not looking can you save yourself.

The darkness of my shadow scraped the rocky ground behind me.

Light in my face.

I dragged the darkness, heavy, shackled to my feet, and faltered.

No one looked back.

~

I have been on this road for a very long time now,

I have been alone,

Not to look back,

I was warned.

I can never turn back,

I can never turn around,

To examine, to think,

To reminisce about what might have been,

If this, if that.

~

Feeling the rumble of collapse and turning,

Hearing the rumble of collapse and turning.

Tears frozen on my face,

To be shared eternally with the wilderness

There is no one left to cry for me,

No one left to remember my name.