Liftoff

Whatever your natural habitat may have been,

Whatever your dreams of fitting in,

The time may have arrived for you to act:

To recognize your true self, find your wings,

Pull free, shake the water from your feet 

Take flight, and find your new horizon.

Aching to bloom

All nature, aching to bloom,

But wary of vulnerability,

Pressing at the seams of wonder;

A flame within, longing to burn forth...

Reddening skies

Waking in the morning 

To a red sky full of warnings

We bravely venture forth and trust

The sky, still red at night,

Will bring sailors delight.

Emptied by fear

The boats sit empty, idle,

Eerie echo of the barren shelves,

The coffee shops where no one sits,

The streets, the planes, the halls

No longer echoing with children’s shouts —

A community, emptied by fear,

Becomes just a cluster of houses,

Each clinging to its own hope for survival...

Armed and isolated

Worst-case scenarios abound,

And so, awash in fear, wondering what-if and when,

We arm and isolate ourselves against the storms,

While thoughts of scarcity 

Drive a deeper wedge between us.

Who’ll reach out and offer help,

And who will turn a blind eye to the troubled?

Collaboration

Collaboration makes it possible

For all of us to cross the waters that divide us.

Together we can accomplish

So much more than as individuals, alone.

Why, then, do we insist

On squabbling over differences

Rather than focusing on and resolving common goals?

Hold and spill out love

We are all cups, drying in the sun;

Created by divine hands, each unique,

And yet, from a distance, all the same;

Each needing heat and light

To firm us and prepare us 

To perform that sacred duty

For which we were created:

To hold and spill out love;

To hold and spill out love.