'Saved' Poem by NiQi Deveaux

In your absence dark and lonely
Seems I just really found my own
Staring blankly back into my soul
So icy, cold as stone

In a trickling stream that's canopied by
Leaves of trees, a hundred years old
Never seeing the sun.... but by winter ends
Who's story never will be told

A pair of clocks tick out of time
Me, then you, then me
I try to catch the rhythm, but
There's no way I'll be set free

An understanding that this is the way
I've chosen it to be
Who makes that bold decision? Why?
Cause it sure would not be me

I'd never choose this tattered path
Aware that it is there
My hands now rough, from fighting dust
My feet tired... worn and bare

Such a craggy cliff I teeter on
When I think of you and i
Will I be tough, cool, bold enough
To take now to the skies?

So blue and crisp, inviting me
To fly toward the sun
As it melts my wings, it somehow seems
Though I dream, it's not enough

To satisfy the hunger pangs
It's soul food I'm starving for
But alas... will not be, my heart must see
It's not you that I adore

It's who I became whilst I romped with you
In mystical water and fire
Never doused that flame or boiled the water
Though both cause each to retire

Retreating back to singlesville
But fine then, it will be
Cause friendships price is knowing the cost
Is the bark that saves the tree

That this stony, icy soul touched by
The shade of that same tree
Is priceless enough, and so I must
Let it be what it will be.


N. S. D.