A Walk of Many Paths: Poems | Second Edition

By D.M. Ferguson

A Walk of Many Paths is the first book from former foster kid and survivor David Ferguson. A collection focused on the good, the bad, and the ugly experiences of a narrator who had to bide his time until he was lucky enough to escape the foster care system. A Walk of Many Path is the unofficial story of someone who had to make the important deci

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Aug 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781648955501

D.M. Ferguson

David Ferguson comes from the City of Maple Ridge in British Columbia, Canada and currently resides a few cities over in Burnaby. Ferguson's poems have mainly been posted online on sites such as allpoetry.com. He has also been published on an online magazine called Axil Poetry and Art back in 2016. He is, at present, an undergraduate student in the Bachelor of Arts program in English at Simon Fraser University. He also went to Douglas College majoring in Creative Writing.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Part One: Growing Up a Crow

Crows and Ravens

Utopian Family Matters

Beast of the Mind

Child’s Purity

Reality of the Ward

House of the Beast

Awakening of the Beast

The World Outside to the Gentle Ward

Waltzing through the Yearly Solstice

The Blind Choices of the Ward

Desires of the Depraved

Daunting Haven on the Hill

The Walk of Many Paths

Pimp Up Your Geek Day

The March of the Lone Wolf

Dream Home on the Other Side

The Beast’s Heartfelt Warning

An Old Log Cabin’s Holiday

The Day the House Shook

Within the Flames the Phoenix Rises

Falling Leaves from the Parental Trees

The Strange, the Change, the Acceptance

Paddling Out from Campbell River

Premonitions of the House of Blue

Transitions in the House of Blue

The Perfect Masks of the House of Blue

Farmer’s Market Waltz

Negligence: Chief of Social Service

The Nightwalk of Adolescence

Wishful Thinking

Keep on Walking

Prophecy of a Whim

Only Human

Pondering the Parental Reflection

Take Hold of Those Wild Reins

Ceremonial Farewell to Adolescence

Prattling with My Emotions

Waning Confidence Wanderer

Breathe the Free Air Again

Tasting Freedom Finally

Mother Figure in Need

Shedding the Old Cloak

Approaching the End of the Tunnel

Healing in Time

Learning to Walk Again

I Am the Throwback Kid

Old Chains Will Break

Resound and Rejoice

Hierarchical Resistance

The Waltz through White Smoke

Spring Off—Of the Offspring

Call of the Wandering Dancer

Voice of the Once Forgotten

Breathe In—Breathe Out

Pendulum at the Crossroads

Remember, Bear, Build

Pendulum of the Confused Mind

Learning to See beyond the Black and White

Mental Spring Cleaning

Facing the Flames Which Burned

Let It Flow

Flirting with My Duality

Holding the Trigger

Earthbound Roots

(Remembering Your Origin)

Era of the Withered Ward

The Iron-Grey Wolf

Part Two: Other Memories of the Crows

Breeze in the Setting Sun

Synthesis within the Pines and Oaks

Polar Bear in the Glintz

Dog Walking along the Dykes

Biking for Solitude

Island Hopping

Memorable Mainland Winter

Mountainous Driving

(Approaching Halfway)

Mountainous Driving

(Okanagan Abound)

Road to Cracked Skies

Ferry to Camp Amusement Park

Running with His Dog

Witnessing Smoke through Trees

Clearing the Buzz

Being the Leaf in the Wind

Part One:

Growing Up a Crow

Crows and Ravens

Bad luck for us black birds is our shadow,

As we are branded with many unsavoury personas, like trickster

Or ill-omened outcast. Castaways.

No matter how broken our speech sounds,

the mere utterances of our pained cawing spark repulsion.

How many chances are they going to take with our lives?

That is the caretakers, whose job it is to feed us, house us,

And most importantly, care for us.

I’m cursed. We are cursed.

Within these rust-eaten iron cages,

Our only odds are fight or flight.

But my wings are clipped, so it’s pointless.

Still, I will fight with claw and beak.

I am dubbed the freedom fighter.

Even if I remain locked in this iron cell.

Crevasses split inside my cerebral domain.

My bony mandibles click and chatter.

My once gentle heart throbs in rage,

When hot tears flow from my deep-black pupils.

All the while, hunger consumes all my thoughts.

So peck, claw, snap at the locks.

While screeching the dialect, everyone has forgotten.

This is the dialect of kindness and kind words.

To them, we are voiceless.

Oh, yes, the caretakers toss in grain,

And splash in water from their silver jugs.

But, contrary to their name, they are careless!

This occurred to me, the Crow, till one hand unlocked the door.

I pecked—blood trickled down her hand.

I clawed—struggling to breathe in sweet fresh air.

I hopped—I hopped from that suffocating cage.

Willingly, I followed the old woman in the billowing white cloak…

Never to return to the Caretaker’s household.

Utopian Family Matters

Firstborn birth is celebrated.

Henceforth a father’s flame is ignited,

while mother’s strings are deeply implanted.

Father’s smoke leeches the air from his own

child, for he is born with no breath.

Thrown into the breathing box for a time.

He was born to survive.

After a fight with his insanity,

The social service summoned their authority

To take the child—stolen in the mental one’s eyes,

Though witnesses would say otherwise.

Portraying the flawless family mirror,

within which the SS saw through the tiny dysfunctional crack.

Five years have passed with their second chance.

Mother won the right to raise.

Returning to the original state, being praised.

Within this victory—something festered, unawares.

Soon another event will bring its hammer down,

causing the irreparable blight on this utopian family.

This union will deteriorate into dust.

Fragmenting all null and void.

Filled with the stripes of flame, the ache

of delirium, of hollow security and belonging.

His world, struck with thunder.

Emerged out of this lone survivor.

And the hellish demons will be unleashed.

Beast of the Mind

It lies slumbering, deep in the crevasses.

Here in the perfect four of a kind