I will breathe with this fear
And cradle her near,
until she decides to go.

For now, she is scared.
And she finds my flesh inviting.
My body warm,
My mind – open and appealing.

A fleeting part of me,
I choose not to distance myself.
Becoming a fragment
Of my experience.

I will stay,
Unafraid,
Until she finds
A new place to go.

Time passes fast
And in it,
If I have not conveyed myself,
I have done nothing.

I used to be a child.
My mothers child.
My fathers daughter.

I used to be the hope
In my grandmother's eyes.

I used to know her hands.

I used to have a brother, once.
We used to talk at night.

I used to run by cold, Atlantic waters.
Now I sit by the Pacific.

I used to have a brother once.

Stoic and gentle–
With dry eyes
And a giant, armored heart.

He, too, used to play in gray, New England tides.

I used to have a family.
We used to be a family.

All I have are words and tears
And hours of life
Arranged in a particular pattern.

Let me live it,
unabashedly so.

It won't exist when I am gone.
And I choose not to bury myself
Before my time.

I promise you,
There was once a time
When I was not so alone.

And how precious
That moment was to me then,
And is to me now.

So many days I begged God for freedom
And how many nights I pleaded for more –
Love.

And here I am, free and fulfilled
For a moment in time.

Let the present go on forever.

As I sit and greet this day,
Warm I am, inside.

As the pink morning sky blazes before me
In its pure, autumn glow.

I let the petals burst from my heart.
I am in love.