Fighter

You can change your job

Change your address

You can dye your hair

And buy a new dress

You can hide in a bottle

Or a bag or a line

The opposite sex

A distraction so fine

But wherever you go,

There you are, so they say

So you don’t fix the pain

Just make it delay

Til the high wears off

Or the dress doesn’t fit

Or the new town still sucks

Relationship goes to shit

These escapes do no good

The pain is still there

So now you get mad

Because your life’s not fair

And you fight with yourself

As you sit all alone

And you feel the discomfort

Straight down to the bone

So you’re back where you started

And now you must choose

Run back to your quick fix

Sex shoes or booze

Or your phone or a drug

Another scenery change?

Maybe bet on some horses

This shit’s all the same

You can run all you want

Run fast and run far

But remember that thing that they say-

There you are

So when it comes back

And it wells up inside

And you get to make that choice

And your brain screams to hide

It is in that very moment

You must stop in your tracks

You turn and you face it

You take control back

Your thoughts are not facts

They’re just things in your head

They may hurt or scare you

But they won’t leave you dead

And that first time you choose

Not to run away screaming

That one small decision

Is so full of meaning

It means you are not a victim

Of your circumstances or thoughts

It means you can learn

If willing to be taught

It means you are exactly as strong

As you believe that you are

It means if you get out of your way

You’ll go so very far

Don’t run from the feelings

That scare you the most

If you sit with them calmly

They’ll fade just like ghosts

And each time you stand and face down that pain

Helplessness fades

And confidence gains

Until one day you wake up

And you sense that shift

Your feet are now planted

No longer adrift

And it’s not because there aren’t

Still bumps in the road

The bad days still come

With their heavy load

But it’s different now

Because you finally believe

That the fighter within you

Was meant to succeed

 

J. M.