Escape

She packed her heartache
into a battered leather valise with
scuffed-up edges and a broken lock,
and left.

Her past trailed out behind her
in long ribbons of barely acknowledged resentment
and unexpressed sorrow.

She surged into the unknown
with hardly a backward glance,
pushing her hair into place and adjusting her collar,
on the outside chance
that someone might notice
and give her a break.

DLD/01JUL07