Love Poem: Backing Away
Diana Jackson Avatar
Written by: Diana Jackson

Backing Away

Backing away from a person
Someone I love very much
Wanted to be there always 
Wanted to feel their touch

Backing away letting them do what they feel they must 
Knowing the outcome may turn into dust
Cannot watch them, can not listen to their termoil again 
Cannot help them figure it out, this journey that must come to an end.   

I have been there in different ways
I have had to do what I felt against all grain
Stand alone groping for answers, yet not hearing them
There were those who reached out a hand that I could not hold. 

I must back away, I must allow him to be free 
I cannot feel for him and I cannot make him feel what I feel
He can only deal with his own heart and his own choices
He is a man after all, vulnerable, sometimes beaten with many blows 

He must pick up his own feet, he must hear the sound of them
He can only follow where his heart is leading
Even if at times he can see a glimpse of something better
Something richer, he must do what he must

I cannot birth in him what is in me
Unless he can see and unless he knows
I must back away and let him go free
This man in whom I thought I knew, I suppose.