The Trees And The Lights And The Signs And Our Past Poem by Katherine Rhodes

I visited a place today
one that was once unfamiliar to me
like a foreign land that
I knew not of
but today is part of my home
I tried to envision it like it was
when we first walked along the river
and stared at the remnants of the
holiday season yet to come
now as I ran down the same path
down the same stretch of brown/green
dead grass, and heard the leaves make
a mournful crunch under my feet
I felt
the same
joyous feeling that we shared
hand in hand
and yet it was completely different
I felt strength
and power
and momentum
in my legs
to keep running, keep moving past
the trees and the lights and the signs
and the happy couples holding hands in the dark
hoping not to be seen and break
the shadows of inconspicuousness
that make love so desirable
and though I felt completely alone
amidst the lights of the season,
surrounded by the emptiness that one
feels before their eyes have adjusted to the dark
I was secure
and independent
without apprehension of the next dark bend in the path
and that place is no longer
our place
but my place
my dark path of which I hold no fear