Prodigal

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Would you know my voice if I call your name?
Been so long since we conversed
I wonder, would our exchanges be the same?
Would you discern the sound of my footsteps as I make my way back to you?
Those footsteps, never hesitant or resistant
Always weary, timid, afraid…
Afraid… that I’d slip and fall before I get back to you… again
Afraid… that before I could get comfortable with ‘us’
I’ll take up my stuff
Beating a hasty retreat
Back to where I don’t want to be
But to where I inevitably return
Sometimes unwittingly…
Sometimes unconsciously…
When I return,
Do you ever hold out hope
That I’ve returned to stay?
Or do you resign yourself to the game?
Is it my fate
That my own inertia would one day cause you to ‘player-hate’
But in the interim…
If I hold out my arms to you
Would you embrace me? Would you speak to me gently?
And soothe me completely?
Would you allow me to listen to the rhythm of your heart?
Would you mind if I put my finger on your pulse?
So I can know what is pleasing to you
So that I could learn to please you

And with little more than faint hope
I’d stay with you long enough
For you to know my voice when I call your name
Long enough to dispel my fear of leaving you again
Long enough for there to be no shame in my game
Long enough so we’d never be the same
Tell me,
Would you?