Here I Go Again (Another Poem)

An old picture from my first semester at Bethlehem in 2017.

Here I Go Again

Back to these streets, littered with trash

Maybe my decision was fast, too rash

The noise, the rush, the buses and cars

The night with street lights, no stars.

The sirens howl all day and into the dark

Hard to find a decent place to park

People, rushing here and there, are many

Here a nickel, there a lost penny. 

Concrete walls, glass, medal, asphalt

The snow melted by a pile of salt

Turns to moosh and then to water

As the weather rises and gets hotter.

But here I go again racing with the crowd 

Running down the street busy and loud

As twilight closes in and lights twinkle

I hear a trashed chip bag crinkle. 

Over the rushing water of that great river

I watch and wonder as it makes me quiver

A feeling of excitement rushes over me

As I watch the crashing Mississippi.

Sad, lonely, yet surrounded by this crowd

Like I’m lost in a dark thunder cloud

I wonder why I’m here and what for

Isn’t there something else, something more?

And then light bursts through the gray

As it shines on the brick, a brighter day

There’s reason, there’s hope, there’s cheer

For why I came and why I’m here.

I’m here to be that quiet light that shines bright

The one that twinkles in the dark of night

The hand that reaches out to comfort and hold

The ear that sits and listens, quietly bold.

Da, I must be here “for such a time as this”

For He always has a reason for the non-bliss

“And so will I go in” and see what I can do for Him

Though the well is dark and the prospects grim.

The prison may last long and the bars be cold

The smells might linger and the noise get old

But if I see through darkness, I shall shine at last

And the greatest future will be better because of the past.

Also, from my first semester, this was the last time I went to the shore. Sad. I want to go.