You don’t need to wear your yesterdays,

Like a chain around your neck today,

Let the rust fall from your tired old soul,

Let nature wash you and make you again whole.

The road behind may scream out your shame,

But it is a voice that you must quickly look to tame,

You are breath and pulse and positive change,

Not just the dust of choices that are now long out of range.

Mistakes are not the measure of your worth,

You’ve walked a difficult path, from the moment of birth,

You’ve navigated through storms, the wind and the rain,

But storms don’t own the sky, and life is not continuous pain.

So leave the cell that your guilt has built,

See that its bars are made of shifting silt,

Turn the key that you always possessed,

Your future awaits and you must not rest.

Step softly if you must, but step please do,

There’s a horizon waiting to be found by you,

You are not the scars from those imprisoned days,

You are the hands that heal them in so many different ways.

You needn’t be ashamed, by the actions of your past,

The door is wide open, you can leave at long last,

Now look for a teacher, a lesson to learn,

A good future awaits you, but it’s something you earn.