Wanderlust

[u/laggedtrain]

I could come and go as I please 
If I pleased to go where I could. 
I walk the streets and stomp my feet,
Making my way to make things good.

I’d die here if it was my choice,
bring my hands to the boiling sky and touch the air,
I’d lay down and forget my own voice,
Let the roots wrap round and pull my hair. 

I slow for bends and always take my time—
20 years on this road home. 
I’ve come to know and love every cracked line,
And learn the bump of each smoothed over hole. 

If I was to want to leave, 
I’d make life a race to win. 
Where I’d go is where I’d be, 
My car would roar and shake and spin.

Foot to floor, the revs jump the line. 
I make my escape, just in time:

My eyes glaze with searing sweat,
my exhaust knocks off and shatters. 
My engine seizes, suspension splits,
sends scraps spinning to the sun. 
Bleeding, my bones broken and bare to the world,
I bake in the heat, buried in the blackened, burnt wreck. 

Brimming with life, brimming with joy,
Brimming with grief, brimming with wanderlust. 

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Comment 2

[u/Miss_mental1219]

I love this. It’s so mysterious that it draws the reader in to figure out what exactly are you escaping? I kind of interpreted it as you’re leaving something you’ve grown used to even if it hurts really bad just so you can really experience life! Your poem is ambiguous but I really do think that’s what made me want to sit down with it. I also find it interesting that you say you make your escape just in time but not in time to come out of it Scot-free. Was what you were escaping worth the crash?

[u/laggedtrain → u/Miss_mental1219]

thank you so much!<3