I stood here long ago,

At this same crossroads,

That served as a courthouse;

Where I was served a sentence,

Where they refused to believe

The truth in my story,

And in my apology;

Where they stripped me

Off my dignity,

Where they crushed my dreams –

The grandest to the most tiny,

Where they left me wishing,

For a descent into oblivion.

And now years later,

After much time under water,

As I resurface

For a breath of fresh air,

I find myself

At the same crossroads,

And the menacing ghosts

Emerge from the darkness

Of the distant past,

One by one,

Ready once again,

To pronounce a sentence

That is as cruel as it is humiliating.

But this time I seek

Not the pursuit of dreams,

For they are long gone,

Buried six feet deep;

All I need

Is to nurture a seed,

Of enduring promise;

And hopefully someday

It will become a tree,

That’s all I seek really,

The promise of a solitary tree,

To show the world

That I did exist.

Image Credit: Photo by Ian Livesey on StockSnap