Unfinished Waltz

One.
A single step—yet a hard one to undertake—
Propelled me beyond the ocean blue; across lake,
Mountain and valley, on to the edge of the world.
Alone and lost, in the land of dreams was I hurled.

Two.
The years slipped by, quicker than water through a sieve…
Has anything changed? Such goals had I to achieve!
Yet I’m no different from the little girl of yore
My lifelong wishes so far, my future unsure.

Three.
I’ve found the key to my passions and desires
It’s lit in my heart and soul voracious fires
That always want more; no longer to be confined.
Yet my heart still longs for what I have left behind.

One.
I work and toil and my dreams seem to draw nearer
My fingers graze their ethereal veil with fervor
I’m scared to go back now, to stray a few inches
For surely once I do, it will turn to ashes

Two.
Another impasse. Should I keep going or not?
Endless questions spring forth in a bloody onslaught
Doubts assail me and drag me to aphotic depths
Where awaits me the yoke of a thousand one deaths.

Three.
I search in vain for the support I once received
But it’s gone; from my family have I been cleaved,
And I must now fly on my own; forge my own way
And hope to find haven elsewhere somehow, some day.

One.
The world is so vast, the horizon infinite.
My frail wings are tired; my quest I wish to forfeit
I seek to land, but push myself ever onward
Till in blissful Hesperides I am harbored.

Alessa Ellefson
November 2010