Our Choices Seal Our Fate

Burning Bridges

Do you know why your bridges burn?

Or how this fire began?

Our lives have taken this left turn,

The flames we now must fan.

I love you so, my dearest friend:

In tandem have we grown.

Our sisterhood will never end,

The time has quickly flown.

Your choices separate us now.

Oh, how I wish you'd see

The burden set upon your brow

Cannot be fixed by me.

Some help, so many tried to get;

But fires have burned there, too--

This self-destructive path is set.

It now depends on you.

Where is the 'lowest of the low?'

When does this horror end?

I wish I could soften the blow,

Your soul I would defend.

My lovely girl, you seem so lost:

You don't know who you are.

My heart, it aches to count the cost

Of how it's burned so far.

Please find yourself, O fairest one.

You deserve so much more.

Forgive me now--what's done is done.

I can't even the score.

The hardest love--the toughest kind,

The truth will help you see.

Reality cannot be blind

Nor set our worries free.

This separation hurts us all;

And each of us must grieve.

We do not wish to see you fall--

In this, you must believe.

You need more help than we can give;

It's time for someone new

To understand the way you live

And do what's best for you.

One day, I hope you'll understand

How hard it is to see

A sister's love slip from your hand

And from your life so flee.

When you are ready to return,

With open arms, we'll wait.

We'll build new bridges--n'er to burn.

Our choices seal our fate.

--Mary Nolan Cox

27 August 2013