You don't
have to flinch—
the branch
that bends
won't break
from a wind
that means
no harm.

Fear
is bark
that peels
without
a wound—
as if
no one
could offer
a soft cover
for you.

Love
isn't a task—
it’s shade
when you
feel bare—
it's the quiet
that stays
when you
don't ask.

When the ravens came, they stole--
Took everything,
Cast it far away,  
Hid it beneath the grays.
Carelessly taunting,
While haunting their prey,
Alone in their bug infested,
Thrown together nests,
One learns to fend for themselves.
The days,
Relentless,
Faded into terror filled nights.
Standing on a dangling twig,
Risking one last breath,
Forever asking, "what's next?"
Then, He reached out His helpful hand,
With an unshakeable voice,
& sounding stance
Advising to,
Walk beyond their words,
Which fall like stones,
Into rivers you've passed,
Onto new rivers unknown.

The petals last pulse under forgotten echoes of moonlit shadows,
remained in a lavender scented field, soulfully still

The breath of crushed velvet, paired with unnamed galaxies,
bespoke of amethyst daydreams

Woven into them were sighs of silky dust nights,
filled with scorched upheavals

Dancing orchids draped in full bloom,
stirred fiery rains, flowing within air of royal dusk moons

Wisteria hues,
too refined for eggplant plums & hominy hums

Iridescent irises & lilac leaves whispered between
blue lagoons cloaked in filtered rooms

Still, they stand between
midnight dreams & mystical realities

The race to the top of silver rain mountain,
it's on the way down to the rivers of riches,
headed out west on golden threaded miles,
through the trees of greeds green ghosts,
in valleys of gilded breaths and golden hushes,
merchants, muses blow on as paper winds,
stay a while on beggars promises,
all to collect their coin of dreams.