Grows Ever Stronger

Now, nearly twenty-five long years
after her exile of choice,
she's found her way home.
Thoughtfully, she sits
in the room she'd known so long ago,
looking out her window
seeing nothing.

The city is so different now,
all shiny & new.
She re-unites with family, with old friends --
her mind shrouded in the past.
She wonders if she can find her happiness now,
when so many complications cloud her mind,
her heart reels at what might be.

Can she forgive the foolishness, the betrayal --
will she see he's turned mistakes once made
to lessons now learned?
The nights she lay sleepless
since she'd become aware of his calls,
days torn in distraction --
heart & mind at odds...she just doesn't know.

The thing she cannot know --
something she may never even guess --
is the genuine quality of his heart.
Her Galapagos is his good, kind darkness --
a place of continued separateness.
Still, she hesitates,
as the stagnation of life grows ever stronger.