Song of Another Day

Song of Another Day

The morning wakes me with its own melody,

the call to keep living,

keep breathing,

keep moving.

“Life isn’t going to stop because your heart’s broken,”

it seems to chide,

the bright sunlight shining to emphasize the point.

I look to the four walls around me,

see a cage and a shelter intertwined.

I hear his footsteps retreating in my mind,

the rhythm I can never escape.

Steps leaving, steps taken far from me.

The shallow thrum of my own heartbeat

replaces his footsteps in tangibility

and already the world is

urging me to rise and

dance to its unrelenting melody

regardless of what I want,

but then again,

nobody ever asked me what I wanted

or even needed,

not a soul,

because what you want in a futile life

doesn’t really matter when the days

drag onward in endless succession anyway.

I lay for a moment hearing the beckoning,

grasp for something to hold onto as the world

sways and shudders

until at last I can no longer ignore the call.

In a shroud of reluctance, I rise,

stepping out of my lilac-hued shelter

into another day.