She has tears and red eyes
In the airport
Sitting just steps
                           Away
Waiting to fly

Waiting to escape her broken world

Waiting
She bows her head
Down
Staring into the palms
                         Of her hands

Lines
Of a life she thought was hers
Lost eyes run along the line until
It comes to an end
And there she lingers

Waiting

Just steps away
Her decision is rising up

In the solitude of her soul

She stands on the edge of some precipice—
A woman
       who is so lonely
A woman
        who is so lost

Out in the ocean where
there is no sight of land
                     A woman who is long suffering
                                                waiting for a sign—

                                                                                …Then
Her phone rings…

_______________________

Yet, she is distant
Eyes unfocused
So far away
Her phone is ringing

Just five steps away
In a distant land
She comes to an end

Her phone is ringing louder longer
Demanding to be answered

_______________________

But it no longer matters
For the woman who had tears and red eyes
Waiting in an airport
So close to me and so far from me

Has flown away to some distant place

Her flight has been called…

This poem placed second in the 2009 Wild Violet Poetry Contest.

2009 Contest Winners 

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