A New and Wiser Time

I remember the sound

Of footsteps travelling

Down white antiseptic

Scented hall ways,

And the deafening

Drone in my head

Of an urgent need to flee.

I, a prisoner, of course

Sat faithfully at the shrine

Of the skeleton ghost

Of the person I was

Trying to force myself to be.

At the time I did not know

Any other way.

Put it aside and put it away.

Your youth has become a page

In a scrapbook of memories.

This is the here and now.

No longer imagine yourself

As that clever girl with

The secrets in her eyes.

Those days have passed,

As time's steady current

Pulls us along to the future.

You have to learn new ways

To weave the sunlight in your hair.

Find new hiding places for the

Secrets you kept in your eyes,

But it's not the end, my friend.

This is a new chapter of life.

(4/9/2010)

Stronger this time around.

Sunshine. Blooming flowers.
I plant my bare feet
in the wet soil and grow.
I reach for the sky--
a new life springing forth inside.

Eliot whispering, "weave the
sunlight in your hair..."
My arms are the branches of trees.
And my fingers are leaves.
Toes become roots digging deeper
Into the ground.

I am planted in this new land--
Life without innate sadness.
I am alive -- Though I falter,
Sway in the breeze.
In a storm, I rock, the gusts
Of terror and fear shaking me,
But still I stand.
And nothing can knock me down now,
I have made my roots deep.

Cleansing and Birth

Overcast skies, clouds strolling by
Signs of an approaching cold front
Rain coming to wash and cleanse us--
Drenching the soil.
And we need it.

Flowers bloom, refreshed by the downpour--
They come to life.
And we need it.
To remind us once again
Of the beauty of simply
Being Alive.

(spring 2009)