Signs

The incessant clank of the street sign was agitating
She needed to think
It was dusk, and the unpredictable breeze with the anticrepuscular rays, provided an epiphanic backdrop

Standing barefoot and out of breath, she grasped the annoying post for balance
Her torn skirt fluttered in the evening zephyr, before adhering again to her sweat-streaked thighs
She doesn’t remember running there

*clank, clank, clank*

A brief flash of her mother washing dishes, and the sound of colliding pots and pans; with her sweet, contented hum
Her mother was a warrior, she put an end to the violence of an abusive man, husband, father
Then this single mom held two jobs and a smile for her little girl

Mom would be disappointed, she thinks, while absentmindedly pawing at the bloody, ripped blouse
Willing it to stay on her shoulder, she stares at the wanton wind making chaotic tops of loose leaves at her corner of the deserted intersection

She didn’t know what to do, she needed some kind of sign
She barely got away this time, and was tired
Not just exhausted physically, but emotionally shattered
And he was coming
He was calling
Taunting, on this secluded, back woods road

She refuses to believe this will be the spot he ends her, so she prepares to run

*clank, clank, clank*

The memory returns; this time, though, it emboldens
Her burning eyes no longer stung from tears, but from fire and rage
Something clicked inside, finally making sense
She realized that when she needed answers, they came
And it was only here she’d get them
She looks up and smiles at the messenger
Then opts to take the other path
The warrior’s path

She’d no longer run, or she’d forever be running
She stood defiant and unyielding
The wind lashed her hair about her battered visage
Unlucky strands were swallowed by the fresh coagulation
War paint

Releasing the stop sign, she began walking in the direction of the vile brute
Live or die, it was she who would end him and his abuse
She would stop running, she would take her power back
For the warriors
For her mother
For herself