I have learned to go back

I have learned to go back

I have learned to go back in time

To the pink striped sheets 

Wrapped around my small warm body

The light coming in slanted

Through the blinds

I enter my body as I wake up 

Slowly with a fear already 

Wedged deep in my chest

It is too quiet and I know 

I am too young

To be alone like this

I have learned to walk 

Across the scratched wooden floors

Towards the glass front door

Bare feet crossing the muddy yard

To the gravel road 

I watch my face crumple as 

I round the corner and see

Their figures in the distance

The crushing relief of realizing—

I have learned to go back to this gravel road

The school bus far away

My face bleary eyed

My family walking home, towards me

The panicked beat of my heart—

I am not alone

I am not alone

I am not alone

— olivia gwyn 

Look stranger

 

Look, stranger

Look, stranger

See the brown field grow wings

With the setting of the flaming sun

Stand under the rising of the 

Patient, florescent moon

Breathe the sweet smell of hay bales

The crisp dying leaves

Feel the air cooling above the radiating asphalt

Where your feet have hardened

Listen to the aliveness of it all

None of them have anywhere better to be

A doe moves from behind the darkening tree line

And stills as the bats flap with fervor

The cicadas are speaking in tongues

And the crickets are praying with their bodies

And the wind is whispering wonder between the trees

And where are you going and

Why aren't you waiting

Who gets to hold a night like this

In the palm of their sweaty, lonely hand

To hold it like a secret forever

– olivia gwyn

I will not be afraid anymore

And in that day

When it is finished

When you walk once forevermore

Out of that grave

I will walk with you 

And where you walk I will also walk 
And I will bow and rise and lift my hands and sing

I will sing and dance
And all will be redeemed 

And where you sit I will sit 

By your side with you 
And we will eat together 

As friends
And there will be no more tears  
Only you 

And I will not be afraid anymore

And what a miracle 
My God
That you are Good

That I will see your face

That I am yours

And you are mine

And I will know

And I will not be afraid anymore