Going Through

The way through

will never be

what we were told it was.

This is a truth

known by storytellers

and by anyone who,

in rebellion or in great anguish,

leaves the rules behind,

the map, too,

and loses herself

in the present communion

with the true terrain —

every ridge and gully,

every rock formation,

the sharp and the smooth,

the solid, the crumbling,

and the requirements

of each footfall 

For it is only these steps,

singular and stumbling

that gain the beloved land.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 4, 2015