When Was It? Poem by Jennifer Fay Richards

When was it that I locked my heart?
And threw away the key.
When was it that I chose to part
from my desire to be free?

When was it that I chose to stay
on life's well traveled highway?
I used sometimes to hope and pray
For the strength to walk a different way

I denied myself the right to be free
And now, to conform, I must live with me
The way that others want me to be.
I sometimes wish I could find that key.