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Order this writing in the book Over the River and Through the Woods the cc&d September-December 2023 magazine issues collection book		get the 424-page September-December 2023 cc&d magazine 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

The Risks of Everyday

Retta Lewis

I can neither run,
Nor struggle farther
Down this path
Of books and rules;
Down this track
Of chalk and tears,
And memories still untamed.

The ropes that bound me then
Are still hanging in the trees;
Still teaching in the schools,
Still moving in the rooms,
As if all the answers were correct,
But some solutions failed.

The act of replacing facts
With the preferred interpretations,
And leaving right to chance,
Were the risks of everyday;
But not the answers they had seemed
To the people seeking them.

It is all just shadows now,
And for a while I lost my way.

None of the exits I tried to take—
Including those inside my head—
Proved adequate.

In an atmosphere soon to rival a grave,
None of my solutions could be applied.

I would wrestle for grace in vain,
And the years have yet to answer.

Some horrors were to be expected—
Untamed,
Resilient,
And still in play.

How close I came to forgetting.
How far I ran to remember.

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