Weightless
Written by Kelly Ann Wilson

What if every ounce of pain
Rose out of my body
And dispersed into the atmosphere
Where it wouldn’t be too much
For one being to hold

What if I find the balance
Of gentle compassion
And requisite accountability
So that I count too
At least as much as he does

What if I hold it in the forefront of my mind
That my mom and dad
Were so young
And took on so much
And built everything we had
With their own hands

I'm running on five percent,
A frame that is worn and bent,
Should I expect less?
Eighty years of excess.
A price worth paying for the bodies rent.

My brain says 100 percent,
It screams at me every day,
I do crosswords, read books,
Write poems and cook,
But my brain ain't my body, OK?

So my mind may be running just fine,
But my body lives under a cloud;
Muscles, they ache,
Joints scroop as I take
Hunched steps with my daddy's old cane.

The summer sun had set, the stars filled up the sky.

They sat out on the front porch, he asked the reasons why.

“I think it’s best” was her reply, “There’s nothing more to say.”

“We’ve talked about this all day long, there’s just no other way...”

Egos bruised and feelings hurt when everything goes wrong,

The good times seemed so very short, the bad times too damn long...

With that he walked away, to where he didn’t know,

But tomorrow he will pack a bag, get on a bus and go...

Since the very day I was born
My dependence began

My mother and father taught me
How to crawl and walk
To read and write
To respect adults
And to believe in prayer

My brothers and sisters taught me
Ways to interact as a family
How to deal with pain, with love
They succeeded in developing a unit
That would provide caring, safety and hope

My teachers taught me
How to read
And write more effectively
How to interact with other students
How to achieve my goals