Only She Knows

A voice on the other end

asks to come down and talk.

I put my planning aside

and welcome her in.

With red-rimmed eyes, she tells me of

poor choices made and

the desire to be a different person.

Choices have caught up to her.

Those around her having difficulty

in believing her intent,

her honesty.

Only she knows

what is real.

I sit and listen

offering a word or two here and there.

“What kind of person do you want to be?”

“I don’t know,”

is all she can say wondering

what trouble will come her way.

She stands at a crossroad

pondering whether to continue the path she knows

or take the risk to become someone else,

to stand out among her peers.

The uncertainty of what she will face at home after

one more phone call,

one more reminder to her mother

of the man in jail that she called, “Daddy.”

Will it be counseling

and the risk to tell a stranger

Everything?

Will it be a group home

and separation from her friends and feel

Alone?

Out of her control,

whatever the consequence,

how she lives it is her choice alone.

Will she embrace the risk and

take the time to become

the person she wants to be?

Or will she continue

as the person so many think she is –

A bad ass who won’t make it?

Me?

I believe in her

strength to keep getting back up;

belief that she can be so much more;

ability to get beyond this.

As our conversation draws to a close

another name comes up and

my stomach drops

when I hear his name.

Another with so much potential

struggling up the mountain of life,

finding it difficult to take the right path.

I believe in him.

Tomorrow I will find the time to tell him.

Again.