I Ran Away

I ran away like a child on a cool spring night

I ran away from the horror, the guns and the knives

I ran away to a freedom I will never regret

I ran away from family that once I called mine

The floor, cold on my feet still sticky

Wet varnish, making the old floor shine

Catching my feet as if trying to hold them in place

I ran away like a child on a cool spring light

Your fists held me in your grasp, wrapped around throat 

 Red and sticky traces of me mixed with the grease

Your old pick-up truck kept better than me    

I’ll run away I scream, I will tell on you.  

The brass door knobs left undone, dull with tarnish

I grabbed at it as if it was gold, my escape.

The cold wet varnish could not trap me like the fly

Only my foot prints were left behind,

Like a child’s left on the fresh waxed floor

I’ll run until I cannot breathe, I’ll run until I am free

The two dollars for gas you gave me

Still lie lifelessly, on the pine wood table.

This time it would not take me to work

It would take me away or too my grave

Where I will lay lifelessly in a pine wood box

And you can bow your head and pray or I will get away

I ran away because of the silence and years of abuse

I ran away from the beatings, the anguish and pain

I ran away in a moment, and never looked back

I ran away, from the monster that caused all the shame.

I ran away like a child into the day,

Slipping quietly from the house

Bowing my head I pray, I ran away like a child

on a spring day.