The evening sun bids me adeau,
reflected like jewels on Caribbean blue;
it’s diamonds dance on ribbons of sea,
as nature’s song floats back to me.

While flaming violets paint the sky;
an impressionist artwork from on high,
all Earth’s creatures seem to hush,
at the beauty of nature’s one true brush.

I’ve searched the world for signs of me,
since I was but a child,
but never found the one within,
who chose to dwell inside.

I’ve known my passion for the arts,
would someday guide my days,
and found the world a wonderland,
to visit on my way.

But never did I know myself,
however hard I’d try,
for I'd been locked behind the bars,
that others built to hide.

A soul which yearned to see beyond,
a female lacking choice,
to be the one created strong,
without a proper voice.

But deep inside this chrysalis,
no wings to set her free,
was growing strength to be herself;
what she was meant to be.

That tiny soul awaiting dawn,
the day I’d finally see,
the beauty hidden deep inside;
a song of love for me.

At last I’ve met this silent soul,
freed from me deep inside;
this woman filled with grace and love,
no longer needs to hide.

I’ve finally woken to a world,
alight with endless skies,
and I embrace a love so great,
it gives me wings to fly.

We lost our innocence last week.
You came into our lives picking them clean,
stealing from us the peace and calm
of a life without fear.

You crept in with your AKAs,
with your anger dripping from your guns;
your violence became ours,
along with its silent fears.

You cloud our minds and haunt our dreams 
as you creep into our nightmares. 
We search for ways to escape, but find no hope 
while you are in our memories.

We have bargained away our future 
for want of power and wealth.
But I have always known that guns 
were traded for lives and souls.

Beneath the hidden water world of pristine turquoise seas,
where sergeant majors flash their stripes and parrotfish swim free,
they dashed before my outstretched hands, their world a paradise,
now live within my secret world where memories are kept live.

I float back to this world of bliss in my imaginings,
a soothing world surrounding me where water gives me wings.  
I float amidst this untouched world of grace and find a calm;
a place inside of soothing peace where oft my soul finds balm.

Stepping out on Lovers Key as daylight greets each summer’s day,
I amble over wooden planks, a bridge along the sandy way.
While sand ***** scamper from my view between its aging wooden slats,
and play a game of hide and seek within its graying crags and cracks.

The colored flags that end the path warn each of us to be aware,
of dangers in the water’s deep that catch the swimmers unaware.
A hot wind blowing from the south lifts underneath my hat’s straw brim,
as sweat drips from my forehead brow, I think how very blessed I am.

While waves wink with the sun’s starlight, I soak in all the morning calm,
and bubbles line the water’s edge, along with ocean’s gifts and alms.
I stroll along the seaside path, while egrets search the ocean spread,
and crystal waters wash my feet I’m captured by this path I tread.

No words can voice my fears untold,
and anger at this stubborn land;
its people hide inside their worlds,
and blind their eyes from where they stand.

We stand upon a precipice,
of all that we now hold beloved:
a living earth to give our youth,
and conscience for the least unloved.

A moral compass, this we lack.
We twist our world to what we want,
befitting all our selfish needs,
and blind our eyes to that which counts.

No words I write can turn our hearts,
alas, this must come from within,
for each must lift the blinding cloak,
and look beyond our sightless skins.

Raised on the crumpled fairytales and dreams of fractured youth,
left nothing to believe in and little else to do,
but cast the past into its hell and banish memory’s hold,
into the fiery pit of growth that purified my soul.

I think of times when hope was lost and blindness filled my days;
when darkness colored everything and filled my life with grey;
where fairies found in fairytales were buried where they died,
and weakened wills were crushed to dust and vanished with the lies.

But now the dust is washed away, and life is largely gone,
that bedrock, now left found exposed, is made of solid ground.
Amidst the hopes and dreams of youth, tales set my mind ablaze,
I sense these wild imaginings were meant to lift my days.

Throughout my life I’ve always thought my dreams eluded me,
and lies were told, in years of old, to quiet me to sleep,
But through the ever changing years, these tales unlocked a door,
for dreams were told to give my mind creative wings to soar.