The Child

Author's Note:  Not sure, just a reflection on my childhood self.

Where are you now

Little wandering child in the woods?

Your bread-crumbs have all run dry and been pecked up and eaten

The sated crows watch you and occasionally laugh from above

There is no pathway home

You'd wandered before for fun, in the unconscious hopes perhaps

Of being lost, but away from sorrow

Better alone and lost

Than at a place called home that felt nothing like

Place filled with uncertainties and pain

So you once thought...And now...

Where is the hearth fire that warms your soul

The liquid heat that steams in the cup?

Where are the arms that held you through the night?

Even there in that hollow, polarizing place they'd labeled for such

Safety was nowhere to be found

Security an idealized dream

But in that hollow, static placed, poorly-labeled and torn

There was familiarity

Normal as your young eyes saw it

Hope.  Dreams.  For there is no greater catalyst for dreaming

Than brokenness

As your shadow became longer, so fainter grew your hope

Till you realized that despair is the absence of hope

Hope is essential to dreaming

Though you searched the sky for help

It seemed that no help came

Clouds that passed by as the moment were merely vapor

The breeze that blew past by the day was simply the wind

But behind the wind, lay the breath

Behind the clouds lay the sun and the heavens

Eyes were watching, care was being taken

There was more than disregard

Placid were the waters that held your face

A reflection of what you might one day be

But turbulent were the waters in your bursting heart

Love that echoed, resounded, cried out for a return

Ripples, ripples in your the crystal image

A face you at once knew and could not fathom

Eyes that no one could gauge but everyone could read

A mystery to yourself, and you your only friend

But greater than you knew was your constant companion

Your faithful guide and friend

A Father to you, the fatherless as no one imagined, or dreamed, could be

His lap was the world, his smile the sky, His shoulders stood among the mountains

All that you dreamed and you could not dream big enough

To realize the Friend that you knew

What you believe in this life can change the life before

Truth now can dispel past lies

Clarity can bring peace to the confused, tormented soul

Who looks up to you for advice