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The Exoneration of Heidi Schäfer

In the shadows of a dead city she stood
And waited for the sun to go down.
Heidi had been a daughter, a wife, a mother,
But never Heidi.
She watched the remnants of a long forgotten song
Lancing towards her from the medallion above
And her heart looked for the listener;
The one who had listened to all her prayers.
"Now that my road has come to its end,
Show me where I can wash these stains
Off my broken skin," Heidi whispered
When she found the listener,
Playing his flute under an ageless tree.
"You've come a long way, Heidi," he said,
"You were too cautious not to fall,
Which made you forget that you could fly."
Heidi watched the hills falling in love with
The abstrusity in the melodies he wove
And said, "The hills look like a dream."
"Yes, but a dream you chose to bury,
Under the weight of your sins," he said.
"You have been all, Heidi -
You have been a seed, a plant and a tree
But you never danced with the breeze.
Tell me, what troubles you the most?
We here are all sinners; all of us twigs
From one tree; so what takes your sleep away?"
Heidi spoke,"My shoulders feel the weight,
But I don't understand what I am carrying.
Is it fear? Is it guilt? Is it remorse?
Or simply memories that burn the eyes?"
The flutist smiled and said, "You don't have to
Wash those stains; they are not from your sins.
Our sins leave stains but not on the skin.
If it's on your skin, it has a purpose.
It wants to remind you of something."
"Of what?" Heidi asked.
"Of your wings. It wants you to fly.
And that flight, Heidi, will remind you
What it's like to not carry shackles."
Heidi smiled and asked, "Will the stains go?"
The listener looked up at the red sky
And said,"Yes, they will go, and you'll be free
For you will finally be Heidi, and nothing else."







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