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