Letting Go

by Cheryl Merrick

The time has come
for letting go
of hopes, dreams,
and yearnings
for a relationship
which can not be
in this life.

The time has come
for letting go 
of old lingering hurts,
for ending the manipulation,
and for ceasing to enable 
another to demean me.


It is time to 
be righteously angry
and defend myself, 
instead of continuing, 
in trained compliancy,
to excuse
the pernicious attempts
to control my soul.

It is time to accept
that there is nothing 
I can do that will help 
a person feel loved who,
from her perverted perspective,
can only view love
as allowing her to "win" --
surrendering all control 
of my life to her. 

It is time to be myself
and quit suppressing
my feelings, needs, and goals
in a futile attempt to obtain
the love the other 
is incapable of giving. 

It is time to remember
the good moments,
and to appreciate the nurturing 
that they were able to give,
but resolutely look ahead
to the future and take responsibility 
for nurturing myself.

It is time to quit allowing others
to use my guileless
sense of obligation
and my empathic love
as weapons against me
in sabotaging my life
and hindering my family's happiness.

It is time 
to mourn my loss,
and filled with hope and faith,
to finally let go, 
at last freeing 
my battered soul 
to heal.