Standing on the Outside Looking In

She once had a life, a purpose, a reason,

Waking each morning with a welcome job to do,

Others depended on her, needed her, their survival imperative,

Her daily life cementing her destiny.

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She took pride in her effort,

Succeeding in ways never thought possible,

Her strength trialled time and time again,

But where she may have fallen, never down for long.

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Day after day she’d do it right,

Knowing the importance of every individual task,

Passing on her experience, her lessons,

Alone, an island surrounded by a moat, against her wishes.

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Year after year sacrifices willingly made,

In an endeavour to heal the future,

Teaching, listening, crying out in sheer agony,

Still rising every morning to do it all again.

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Never too much trouble, she welcomed every challenge,

Heart breaking from those she foolishly trusted,

Soldiering on, she was striding forward on an impossible mission,

Hauntingly powering through every fateful mess.

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Her goal posts forever in her long distance sights,

Knowing the succession was worth all that it cost her dearly,

Happiness far from her reach,

And still she carried on, knowing failure wasn’t an option.

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Then the completion of her success was on the horizon,

She could sit back and smile, even relax,

She’d made it, her job was exceedingly well done,

She no longer needed to ride the waves of her strength so hard.

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She’d often dreamed of the end of her responsibilities,

Believing it was the ultimate success,

Knowing she’d done her best, and she’d done it well,

Expecting her well earned due to lighten the load.

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But slowly the devastating reality was shoved in her face,

There’d be no celebration, no graduation,

No appreciation for all her pain, all her sacrifices,

No proud moment of thanks, she’d expected too much.

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No, instead there was a gradual removal,

A subtle push one day, a hard shove the next,

A silencing of any need, advice no longer welcoming,

As her life slowly disappeared over that long wished for horizon.

***

Replaced with better, an outstretch of the new,

Who have taken her importance and made it their own,

And she’d been slowly reduced to ashes,

Her reward for it all, one of becoming easily forgettable, invisible.

***

At the junction in life where it rains pride and happiness,

She’s left standing outside in the bitterly cold,

As she longingly looks in on the replacement’s happiness,

As she’s left with nothing, pushed aside,

She’s left sadly standing on the outside looking in.

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Originally posted on Medium