My heart knew it needed you
the minute it took its first beat.
Your name was on the tip of my tongue
the minute it first learned to speak.
Yet, I crawled and slithered
through the tall, green reeds
ducked and darted my head beneath the water’s surface,
hoping you wouldn’t notice me
or the deeds I’d spent so long trying to bury
in my backyard, but that kept coming
back up to the surface of my mind –
my secrets unraveling like a ball of yarn,
stretched out across the years of my life.
I never believed that I could deceive you for long,
just trick you long enough
so that I could hide and have my way,
always planning on coming back to you
Sometime, somewhere along the way.
But what I thought was freedom
turned out to be a ball and chain –
a slave to my own misery,
a slave to my own pain.
But still my heart needed you
and still my tongue longed and desired
to confess your name.
Even when I didn’t think I needed you,
you never quit calling,
you never left me on my own,
but left your voice to pitter-patter upon my heart,
whispering and leading me home.

Photo Credit: stefan.dotti via Compfight cc