It
is a challenging post at which she’s been stationed
 |
(C) Kedralynndeviatart.com, on
"Tears on My Pillow" Facebook page
|
all
these many tours of duty. It’s true, for most,
a
foreign land becomes, in time, a home,
the
customs and the language second nature,
all
the children of the region cheerful messengers of love.
Above
the treeline in their seat of power, all the older ones
appreciate
the service, even saying so.
The
elders of the village welcome such a one with friendship,
frank
in their approval and their gratitude for what it represents.
Instead,
her discontent has grown quite honestly,
her
station less inviting with each passing week.
Uniquely,
with potential enemies abounding,
it
is loneliness she battles on her rounds
as
bitter cold blows through and makes a liar of the sun.
When
day is done, she offers her request with silent tears…
a
transfer, please, or even just a break… that so far, reach
no
further than the dawn. Despite the time that has elapsed
until
her rising, her pillow still is damp when morning comes.
She
clothes herself inside a uniform that used to fit and
greets
the day, confident that she will meet, once more,
the
numerous requirements of this post that is her trust,
today
and then the next and then the next,
until
one day, perhaps, someone will come with news
that
all the battles have been fought. The war is won.
She’s
free to go. A victory!
Until
then, she will ask and ask and ask again for one thing only:
A
post where she is needed. Wanted. Where she can sleep
at
night, her pillow dry because her dreams have all come true.
(c) Ellen Gillette, 2022
