Now

She saved my life,
my stepmother did,
long after she was
no longer my stepmother;
she became my friend.
I, involved in a
abusive relationship,
sought her advice
and found the courage
to leave and live
my own life
without fear,
without intollerance,
without controls
and manipulations
and threats and bruises,
just as she had done
so many years before.
And now, fifteen years
later, as we scatter
her ashes, I ask myself
what have I done
with the gift she gave me;
wasting all these years?
And what am I going to do
about it now?


Copyright © 2010 by Shawn Murray