The Other Side

It seems simple enough, standing on the other side
to cross to where you think I should be going right now.
The street is wide, the traffic slow, there is plenty of light,
no fast cars in sight, no snow or ice, or blinding rain.

I see you walking there, so steady and reassured, straight ahead of me
only on the other side of where I happen to be.
You move faster with each stride, yet somehow you lag behind my shadow
and my pride, as you try to walk upstream from where I run down my fear.

Like canoes on a fast moving stream, ahead, behind, altered at the current's whim,
I move forward no matter how like molasses feels the pavement by my feet.
Your back straight and strong, you keep keeping on, as I long to see instead your eyes.
The wind blows your hair as it blows my resolve up high into the static silver sky.

Perhaps some day, you can meet me side by side, before I find that 
 you have turned a corner that has no bend or measure that can comply
with your fury step and my aching breath that is almost there, almost free,
to feel my wings touch above the fresh green of the tallest tree.


Trudi Ralston.
April 13th, 2016.
" Do not ask for an easy life,
ask for the strength to endure in a
difficult life " : Bruce Lee.