Bourbon Red

 by Sierra Maltese-Cotter

 

A Single Step 

The ground here, it taught me how to walk.
The air here, it taught me to how to breathe.
The ocean here, it taught me how to swim.
The people here, they taught me how to love.
But these people here, they taught me how to hate.
The pain here, it taught me how to weep,

 Then it taught me how to cry out,

 As if my soul were being pulled from my body.
But here,

Here I heard the first joke that made me laugh.
Here, I learned how to live.

If one place taught me so much, must I always stay?
I cannot.
I cannot stay.
For even though this is where I learned all I know,

I wish to know more.
For though this is where I first embarked on adventures,

I wish to venture more.
I wish to learn more.
I cannot learn more here,

Not now,

I have stayed too long.
I must travel where I never have before,
To learn what more places have to teach me.

I wish to leave, to explore the unknown,
And to see the unseen.
I wish to breathe where I never have.
To swim where I never have.
To love whom I never have.
Maybe even to hate whom I never have,

And to cry about what I never did.
I wish to laugh at new jokes.
I wish to live a new life.

I wish to walk where I never have before.
I wish to walk upon as much of this earth as I can, before it takes
me back into the ground I step upon.

This place is my home.
This place taught me many things,

But above all, she taught me how to be free.
 I will never be free if I do not learn to wander.
This place has been my teacher,
And I know now what she was teaching me;
She was teaching me how to live,

So that I could live wherever life takes me.
She taught me how to run.
She taught me never to let fear keep me from doing what I desire.
She taught me never to let one place claim me, and keep me from my destiny,

Not even herself.
She taught me that it takes one single step in a direction to start a new path.

But a single step can be so hard to take.
With every step away from this place, I feel gravity strengthen,

As if Earth is grasping my feet to pull me under.
I feel the wind blow me back,

And the more I walk, the stronger the gale becomes.
I feel my heart ache with the thought of those I am leaving behind,
And I feel my ambition wane in the shadow of my fear.

So maybe I shouldn't step.
Maybe I should run.
Run towards the endless possibilities.

Run fast, and never let anything hold me back.

But no matter how far I run,
I will come back to this place.
This place is my home,
And it will still be my home when I return.
But I will return with stories to tell.
Stories that will make people laugh at what they never have.
Stories that will make people cry at what they never have.

 Goodbye my childhood friend.
I will see you again one day,
But I cannot stay.
I will not stay.
A single step, that's all it takes.