Welcome Home
We’ve been waiting fer yer arrival!
The cleanest victory isn't slaying monsters. It's letting them discover they've never been more than ghosts…
…Banished ghosts who are unable to touch a person who has stopped believing they belong Home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They arrived early.
Long before dawn.
Doubt wore my own voice
like she had stolen my coat.
She never shouted.
Just leaned all kinds’ah coy ‘gainst tha fencepost, venomously smiling as she went spittin old measurements in mah face.
"Ya tried."
"Ya failed."
"Memmer… yeah you memmer.”
Fear weren't so clever.
Fear carried keys, walkin’ room ta room
lockin' windows I'd never noticed were open.
I called every prison…
protection.
N’Worthlessness?
Shit, Worthlessness never even learned my name.
She burnt lead into her toxic ledger.
Ink-stained fingers.
Bent spectacles.
Subtractin' every single kindness.
Taxin' every dream into bankruptcy
Calculatin' a life
as if a soul
could be balanced
against her loss column.
Past Failure sat beside mah very Soul.
That sick old taxidermist.
Stuffin' yesterday's carcasses
until they looked alive again.
Placards hangin' round their necks.
"This is who ya are."
"This is all ya've ever been."
For years… tearful years I sobbed
I balked …
I argued.
Defended mahselves
like a man explainin'
ta tha shadows
why he deserves sunlight too.
Then...
one mornin'
I quit answerin' um.
I walked into tha room
with clean hands.
No fists or vengeance…
…Just Truth.
I thanked Doubt
for teachin' me
that certainty ain't never was Courage.
Then I relieved it
of my voice.
I thanked Fear reverently
for keepin' me breathin'
long enough
ta learn livin'.
Then I took back
mah keys.
I thanked Worthlessness profusely
for revealin'
the poverty
of every scale
that forgot
Mah Love.
Then I burned
its fuckin’ ledger.
Finally...
I knelt
before Past Failure.
Not because it was king.
Because even graves
deserve flowers.
I brushed tha dust
from its shoulders.
Closed its tired eyes.
Folded its hands.
N' whispered,
"Ya did all ya could.
But ya don't get
ta follow me Home."
I buried it
without hatred.
No applause.
Not even another look.
Behind me,
Them Crows n Ravens
had nothin' left
ta eat.
Ahead of US…
even OUR shadows
walked lighter.
Beautiful