Footsteps

As she walks along she sees just one pair of footsteps behind her
They are small and carefully placed
There is no sound, no movement of anything else
She is weak and broken but she forces herself to keep walking
She doesn’t know where she is walking to or even why
But she knows if she stops she will surely fall
Her heart, her mind, her soul, everything feels empty
She has nothing in her to make the journey easier
But she keeps on nonetheless
It’s dark now and she looks ahead for some sort of light, a sign, anything
But nothing but the sounds of the crashing waves answers her silent call
Why cant anyone understand, why cant they see she wonders to herself
She wraps her arms around herself trying to keep the icy chill out
It stabs at her like daggers slicing bits and pieces of her flesh
All she wants to do is scream, scream so loud that the heavens will hear her plea
But she stifles it inside her like everything else
She just fills that empty void with her tears and pain
Better to be filled with that than with nothing at all
She suddenly hears some voices in the distance
She tries to hide not wanting to put on another fake smile today
She’s tired of hiding the pain, its getting too deep now
It’s getting harder and harder to find a mask big enough to cover it up
She listens quietly to the voices and knows immediately what they are
It’s the voices of Them
The ones look down their noses at you and judge you for not being like them
Judge you for not being perfect like them, for being broken and hurting and weak
She feels a tear begin to fall from her eye and tries to wipe it away, but dozens more start cascading down her face, too fast and too many for her stop
She’s caged in a prison she created for herself
She wants out so badly but when she created that prison she did not think to make a key
It’s like a poison with no antidote, a disease with no cure
It’s getting too much, too hard to handle, too tiring to walk
She knows what she must do but she doesn’t know how to do it
She suddenly looks behind her and winces in disbelief
All her footsteps are gone, erased as if she never existed
She looks down at her feet and notices that even as she is walking now, no footsteps appear
Each step she takes makes no mark in the sand, not even a sound against the grain
She’s shocked at first, but then smiles calmly
Afterall, no footsteps at all are better than hers alone….