Michigan Poem by Kristina DeClue

-Michigan-

I was told I could believe in life again
That her lakes would heal the holes with in
Autumn leaves would warm my bones
Even in the bitter cold

One mile north
Somewhere on a street
Sat a house that pointed east
I called her, Michigan

Reconnect and mend the cracks
Stitched together
With good intent

Home was where
The snow still fall
And where the love
Never died
I called her, Michigan

But I was fooled
When I believed
The false promises that she breathed
Every spring and every summer
I gave her all that I had to offer
I called her, Michigan

Assured of her great strength
By watching the waves whip off those
Great Lakes
I believed And Istill prayed
formonths and years
Even as she broke ground to dig my grave

I knew in autumn
When leaves no longer held that scent
That kept my childhood
Pure and innocent

When the frozen ground
From November rain
Some how budged to continue with my grave

One mile north
Somewhere on a street
Sat a house that pointed east
You could hear
sound of my screams
Echoing off the shores
Of her Great Lakes
We called her, Michigan

Curled up
Crying on the floor
Where I laid Baring my soul
Muffled screaming from all her sorrow
As she continued to prepare me
For the blackness that would follow
I called her, Michigan

All those mended cracks
I pushed together with good intent
War raged within as I tried to forget
I pretended to forgive all that she did

I had to leave
I Had to run
I closed my eyes and headed south
She knows the secrets
I buried deep underneath the leaves
That smolder and ash
Hidden in the grave

In that yard
Of that house
On the little street
Just west
Of that Great Lake
In a city still pointed east
In a place
I called, Michigan