When what was
need becomes want 
because you accepted 
to take on
the frequently painful 
task of facing 
personal fears and 
insecurities about insufficiencies 
one quickly identifies 
those same missing 
in others and 
what once were 
green flags turn
red and yellow 
well yellow you 
become cautioning others 
of your strength 

A bedroom door 
and light that
changes from yellow 
to blue to
white like flashlights 
and lanterns in
tents long ago 
but now this 
door lacks the 
shadows of my 
once knew long 
forgotten lost crazy
carefree teenage years 

Coffee’s up
I holler 
as I
hear your 
now familiar 
shuffle of
feet floor
and the 
gathering of 
clothes like 
workers in
fields looking 
for rice
and then 
a ghost 
barefoot and 
barely human 
reaching for 
the cup 
that contains 
its soul 
bringing grace 
back to 
the dead

You weren’t 
supposed to 
ever supposed
to really
walk through 
that door 
after you’d
walked out 
a different 
door before 
but here
you are 
just as
you were 
before a
bit older 
and wiser
but still 
with those
eyes and 
beautiful smile 

The hardest thing 
to do is
watch be it
snow melt or
river dry or
day end or 
painful lesson learned 
but know this 
I have been 
all and through 
and gotten over 
and across those 
very same things 
and I can 
assure you that 
there is always 
another side of 
things and that 
when you arrive 
those very same 
things which seemed 
impossible are not 
they just are
like other things 
in the way