A sign language
Understood completely
without a single word
To know what one feels
A living eulogy
To be oneself
Without apology
To be cheered on
By your own team
Receive outstretched arm
When you fall
A desire to be known
Weathered scars and all.
Do everything you can
To tell someone you love them
Even if they don’t understand
Why someone would.
It is a given
That one who struggles
To see themselves
As loveable
Need it more
Than those who
Love themselves more
Than you
Tears spilled
Into ink well
Until overflowed
Onto blank page
Of future days
Now never erased
If I'd begged
Bowed down to power
Where would I be now?
Holding the broken limbs
Of my worn out pride
Barely alive
Purest secrets of heart
Are always one's own
No prying ear
Or peering eye
Could ever come near
Mystery of mind
Far from critique
No matter how many
Mouths ill speak
Suspicions creep
Upon mere kindness
How often friends
Are lost in mire
No one knows
How love or life grows
Gems of the depths
On display
Along effervescent
Fringe of tussling waves
Generous she is
As I turn to leave
She catches my eye
Again
If missi g her were
A long exhale
Ocean begs me
To breathe
No greater power
Has she
Who speaks truth
Unapologetically
Sings her song
Wholeheartedly
Treads her path
Boldly onwards
Though steep
I am a saltwater woman
I live for the shoreline
Motions of waves
Racing my heart
Pounding the beat
Thrill of creatures
Beneath my feet
Telling me I am alive
I am free
Count the stars of heaven 