Goodbye Grove

Jennifer Paige©2000

Light and shadow used to play

There beside me endless summer days

The grove and the faeries would ask me to stay

Stay and listen to what the trees had to say

They would whisper, "You are safe

From everything you fear in this place."

     And I was

All the pressed flowers and oak leaves I would trace

Dancing in the valley, awkwardness became grace

And in my innocence, I thought I'd found my faith

God sat beside me, He'd keep me safe

Until thunderheads brought lightning and rain

Or the most beautiful sunsets sent me home again

     Till morning came, Till morning came

The first boy to really kiss me was twice my age

And every time he touched me, my heart would race

My first rebellion, oh how my father raged

Sneaking out at night freed me from the cage

And this boy would whisper and wipe tears from my face

Saying, "There's nothing to fear, in my arms you're safe."

     I thought I was

          Till he had me on the ground, his body smothered me

          Ruining the place most sacred to me

          And the barrel of that gun was all I could see

          As I prayed for God the Father to rescue me

               God please!  God!

               God damn you!  God?

               God please...God?

Years there after on a summer day

I heard the grove was cleared and I found a way

Around the fear that made my heart cold and gray

To finally say goodbye to my childhood at play

And my heart whispered, "I'll be okay

I have nothing left to fear in that sacred place."

     So I went

I wandered in sorrow, no hand but my own to hold

As I walked among them, my felled friends of old,

I heard a whisper of their secrets left untold

Emotion filled me where I once cold

"Only the memory remains, please keep it safe.

All the anger and the fear it will replace."

     And it does, so goodbye.

     Goodbye...

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