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Writer's pictureLavinia Thompson

January Writing Prompt 9

"From The Outside"


To live from the outside

is to drive headlong

into every orange-dusted sunset;

a twisting highway with no

destination in sight

watching towns pass by

and I never know

anything about any place.

I just keep on running.


Is it a waste of time

to drive until you’re crazy?

To speed down a dark back road

without headlights

waiting to crash

but the deadly impact never hits,

so you sit on the roadside

watching headlights

fade on the highway

like a world of normalcy

of which I can never be a part.


It’s to live where wreckage

and heartbreak dwell

for years on end

until the house is in flames.

I stood on the street

before the ruinous skeleton

soot-soaked, smoke-stained,

and never felt more

disconnected

I never felt more

engulfed in agony.


To live from the outside

is to be immobilized within

a period of healing that feels like

looking out from a glass house

shimmering against pastel mornings

after the longest nights end,

after the madness and pain

and longing for death

dissipates with time.

You stand out by that highway

knowing sometimes recovery

isn’t about running away

but about tearing yourself open

to spill like the friscalating horizon

that still awaits you.




Image by Robin Lieck from Pixabay


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