Kessel Run Week Nine Challenge: Write a poem in any style/form, and of any length.
Restoration (Mara Jade)
Connection, family: chimerical,
unknown—supposed comfort, love, and yet
a passing thought at best, unsubstantial
like smoke; a weightless sentiment to turn
dispassionately away from. It had
no hold on one like her, who stood alone
and strong always; less even than a dream,
for dreams are wished-for things, and she never
had missed, or asked, desired—never knew
the prison walls around her, solid, high
unseen but binding and insidious,
and she had never noticed, never looked
beyond, or wondered over what could have
been—should have been—hers, never even thought
to seek; instead accepting—loyal and
obedient and blind—of all that which
was given (dictated, demanded and
imposed). Alone and proud in solitude,
the lies that shaped her life and mind and heart
a cherished fantasy; not knowing the
loss suffered nor the wound inflicted. Not
until familiar strangers, somehow known
despite her heart's defiance, carefully
and gently, their eyes brimming with hope and
with love—for her?—reached out to draw the lost
and longed-for child, beloved, back within
the fold, embracing her, becoming them.
Restored, renewed, what had been shattered now
transformed to whole once more. Her caution turned
to joy, the gaping wound that she had long
denied, now healed, the hollow where her heart
had been, now filled. Happiness cascading—
astonishing to one so long alone
and unaware of any lack. And like
the stars appearing in a dusky sky
at sunset, those she loves abound yet more
and more; the walls that once defined all that
she was now crumbled, dust that blows away,
a nightmare dissipating in morning's
soft light, forgotten, brushed away as life
begins anew—the pain exchanged for love
and freedom unimagined, glorious,
an overflowing joy that multiplies,
creating family from blood and choice.
A life she never knew she needed, like
the air she breathes. She blossoms, radiant,
adored, adoring, knowing peace at last.