"Wherever You Go, There You Are"

"Wherever You Go, There You Are" 

By: Brendan Cadman

Every sleepless night he tossed and turned underneath,

sheets of fire while resting on rocks masquerading as pillows.

As a child his heart and body were never in the same place,

longing to be anywhere other than where he was.

In the precious few hours he managed to slip away from the world,

he could only manage one consistent and tantalizing fantasy.

On the back of a broken spirit,

wore the scabbed scars of dreams deferred.

Wounds healed and closed by the passing hours,

reopened and bleeding from memories of distant times. 

His heart ached for what had come,

and broke over what had gone. 

Haunting ghosts standing on empty corners,

and sitting in abandoned barstools beside him.

He could not escape the reminders of what he lost,

so all he knew to do was run.

When the pad lock broke and the binding chains were set free,

he made a daring break and finally attempted to getaway.

With the world at his feet he set his sights to the south,

longing for the open pasturers and solitude of roads less traveled.

For a moment the silent nights and quiet streets,

gave his restless soul much sought after peace.

But soon the silence brought deafening thunder inside his mind,

and like the coming winter nothing could stop the arrival,

of the demons he worked so hard to evade.

Unable to stand the silence he packed up his things,

making his way east towards the city that never sleeps.

For as long as neither would he,

constant distractions fortifying the dam in his mind,

would be enough to keep raging waters of regret at bay.  

He kept his third eye blinded by the bright lights of billboards,

next to imposing high rises towering above him. 

When hiding in the backwoods of small empty towns failed him, 

he hid in plain sight amongst the masses,

of a crumbling concrete jungle. 

But soon enough he found that eventually even the brightest lights go out and the bottles dry up to the coarsest of desert sands. 

When he reluctantly returned to his dark and empty dwelling,

he found his past waiting for him like an un-welcomed guest. 

He ran all across the world,

and when his feet bruised and bled,

he savored the pain and ran some more. 

After going town to town and city to city, 

eventually there was nowhere left to run. 

It took him years to submit to the truth the world would never let him forget. 

The only undeniable fact that remains,

in every city, state, country, and in the constellations of stars beyond. 

Wherever you go, there you are.