No Escape Routes Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

It was not easy to find my own place,
As I carved my own path...
With a facing of challenging obstacles to erase.
And no escape routes through which to exit.
No.
My lips had been sealed from making complaints.
Any anguish inflicted I learned to keep concealed.
This has been my accepted reality.

It was not for me easy to hear,
The jeering done to overcome.
And to do it with the feeling of fear.
As nightmares taunted me with a doing done.
But a faith kept me unshakened.
Even as I witness,
The safety of close relationships disappear.
A safety I endeared with a keeping them near.

Yet protected I felt with an approval of my journey.
A journey I chose to complete.
Regardless of what it took to succeed.
Acknowledging my efforts somehow were kept blessed...
If I did not accept defeat.
To know one day,
I will experience victory...
With others who managed to rid themselves of doubt.

'We were watching you.'

You were...
Watching me?
How?
From where?

'You had to feel us cheering you on.
From midnight until each dawn...
We were watching you!
But you believed us to be nightmares.'

Huh?

'Just know...
We were...
And we are still there.
Even though you had not been aware.
We too had to rid ourselves of doubt.'