#NaPoWriMo Day 2: Walked Away.

Today’s prompt via napowrimo.net is to take a page of Robert Frost’s book (or poem!) and talk about our very own ‘road not taken‘ and why it ‘made all the difference’.

I decided to write about something that we are all very familiar with— walking away from the truth because you’d rather pick peace of mind over closure. We have all chosen to walk away from something that we would have given everything for because the weight of the pursuit itself can be a little too much for us to carry for the rest of our lives. We might still wonder about what could have been, had we unearthed the truth, but we also know that we are in a better place not knowing.

Before you continue, I hope you also check out my best friend Kriti’s blog (Kittu’s Modern Mixtape) to read her wonderful takes on the NaPoWriMo prompts.

I hope you enjoy reading the poem! Xx

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The world at my feet,
There was nowhere I couldn’t go,
But I remained frozen where I stood,
Footsteps too heavy, too slow.

I’ve wondered why and I wonder still,
The weight of the world carried on my chest
Crushing me to dust and all my will;
I now know the pain that Atlas felt.
To leave behind all we held dear,
To walk away from the truth—
I would believe the words I hear
Had they rung true like they always would.

Secrets buried under a new moon,
Dug out of their graves, decrepit,
Alive, no secret time doesn’t unearth;
I find myself wandering by,
Looking for a path to lead me away
For should I stay another moment,
I know it will end in tears and blood,
And I still couldn’t do that to you.

I wonder if this is the harshest trial I’ll go through,
If this is the most treacherous road of them all,
And to think I would’ve walked it for you,
To think I would’ve taken the fall;
Perhaps the bravest thing one can do
Is to leave behind the truth;
No blood and tears could write to an end,
The way I know walking away would.

And yet, I am plagued,
In nightmares and in the day,
By what the truth could have been
Had I been brave enough to stay;
But no drop of blood would ever be
Worth the peace I bought—
The price so high, indeed,
Who could have ever thought?

The world at my feet,
There is nowhere I cannot go,
But I remain where I stand right now,
Footsteps steady and slow.

~© Shubhangi Srinivasan.

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Featured Image by marius sebastian on Unsplash