Letting Go

• Emma Setka, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2010

She runs through the chaos,
the wind scars her face
The sky screams at her
its complexion grey
It’s the calm before the storm,
but there is no mercy,
a melancholy expression
plays on her canvas-like face
The by passers are troubled by her haste
“Lady, are you sure you’re okay?”
She has a single thought, no other intention;
she ignores the others’ rapid attention
The rain seems to her like liquid bullets,
she finds the place she’s been looking for
She looks across, the valley is smiling
The thought fights for survival
There’s no more sound, no more movement;
Her hands quiver like an earthquake
Her mind, her body was a sunken vessel, filled with tar;
sticking, clinging and rotting from the inside out
something was controlling it, poisoning her

Now she’s just a pair of floating eyes
the poison spreading through her soul
She can’t seem to shake it,
the very idea scares her;
the valley is still smiling, beckoning her
That single thought led her here
she lets it go, with no more fear
Her spirit is free, flying high above the sky,
gliding softly like a falling swan feather
She smiles silently as she stares into space,
her world has finally been tied back into place

The wind seizes, the rain slows down to a drizzle:
the sun grins, highlighting and caressing the landscape’s brilliant features
Because what needs to be seen,
will only be seen once.