She stared out the window, lost

in the passing landscape.  The bob

and sway of the train, the song it sang

as it rolled along its tracks, her only  solace.

The miles slipped past, her memories

with them, every click of the rails carrying her

closer to a new life she hoped to discover;

further from the one she hoped to forget.

So many wrong turns, so many

fateful decisions, painful disappointments - in

herself and those she counted on - had brought

her to this place - uncertain of who she was

yet certain she would become something

someday to someone somewhere. 

Her somber eyes, now filled with grief,

slipped away from the world outside to

her hands, cold with her anxiety;  the ring

now missing seemed heavy on her finger,

constricting her heart, consuming her soul.

Tears, a salty cascade of regret, slid

silently down her cheeks as the past

rolled away behind her.