From Here to There
A poem by Julia R. DeStefano
From Here to There
All I do is drive, drive, drive -
from here to there, there to here -
passing out bits of my heart like party favors.
A hamster riding her wheel.
A trained bear in a traveling show -
again and again and again
in the cyclic nature of living
where everybody wants, wants, wants
something, anything, whatever I’ve got to give -
draining me as the leech does its host.
In two weeks, it will be my birthday.
Somewhere, a woman is planning,
enveloped in the red disease -
that fever of need and wild laughter -
bursting with renewed life.
But I am a woman going home -
my dance red and repetitive -
seeking the street not buried
in an avalanche of detours, dead ends, and traffic signals -
to that fateful moment when the map expands
to reveal more destinations than these.
© Julia R. DeStefano
