Jennifer Gulbrandsen

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POEM | A Year Ago

A year ago, from the hometown, I drove to Wells St.

The voices of the past still screaming haunts into my ear

It’s never enough, but at least I know how to fight with no fear

The city called me home, a better ghost haunted the corner-It wasn’t the other past I needed;

It was him I was destined to meet. 


Every morning the ghost showed me their dream

The sounds, smells, and sights. The mistake was going west

The funny one, the brother, and him. Running away was the wrong quest

Stay, run toward your destiny, he told me, the future is here-

You won’t know it, but you’ll feel it on every ray of the sun’s beam. 


Ground yourself, feel everything, mourn, grieve and cry

There’s no more need to simply survive, the time is now to live

Be selfish for once, make choices, let go, there’s nothing left to give

Time will heal them and answer their questions, but you have to stay

Running away, coming back, running away, and coming back is how we die. 


A sad day will bring that ray of sunshine that tells you where to go

You don’t have to settle, greatness sees you for what you are

The ones who didn’t were threatened by the blinding shining star

Nothing meant for you ever runs away, you have to remember that

Step into the spotlight for once, it’s time for you to be the show


You become that uptown girl, the benevolent queen of Clark and Lake

Making that Blue Line a Love Line, but not for just anyone

Access to you is a privilege, it’s not to be given away for power or fun

You won a game you didn’t choose to play. They lost everything in the end.

They lost you, themselves, joy, and are alone with everything they forsake.


Alone within four walls of their pain, while you fly free as a bird

Your cage shattered, now you look to the clouds above all of them

That won’t be you, it will never be you. You were always the hidden gem

You’ll go as far as the shores of the north, not west, to always see your beloved home

That ray of sunshine got brighter and came with more answers, and you heard.