there once was a woman who ran away

for thousands of miles and hundreds of days

she ran to be no more the woman who wanted

she ran to be free from a life that was haunted

she ran ’til she came to the edge of the sea

and asked herself there what she wanted to be

~

she said that she wanted to know her own mind

not only to seek but sometimes to find

she said that she wanted her heartbreak to mend

to live a beginning instead of an end

she said that she wanted to be whole alone

and to heal from the death of a dream of a home

~

there once was a woman who ran away

from wishing that someone would ask her to stay

but she found in the end that she ran to herself

for in circling the world there was nobody else

who would hold her and hide her and comfort her too

who would brighten her yellows and lighten her blues

~

so she held her own hand and she combed her own hair

and some words washed away but she didn’t much care

and she sang to the sea and the rain and the sun

and she felt the tide turn and she knew she’d begun

for the woman who’d set off to run away

found that she was the one place she wanted to stay

~