Smile

somehow, miraculously,

the greatest, most heartfelt

expression of joy

spreads,

the first sunbeams

after a rainstorm

breaking steadily through

the blackness –

perhaps it is contagious, for

as easily, as naturally

as it appears,

before anyone notices,

it’s spread to others too –

touching even the coldest heart

with its magic.

School Bullies

Why is it

that when people discover something beautiful

something wonderful

they think of nothing but crushing it

destroying it

pounding it into the ground

until it can never be

what it was before?

Why is it

that kind souls

are so often mauled by others?

Is being beautiful a crime?

Why do people feel the need

to scorn

to mock

those who are different?

Perhaps that’s why

beauty in others is such a fleeting joy –

we should enjoy it while it lasts,

before others come along

to vandalize the temple of kindness

to take a soul that is truly beautiful

and squeeze it relentlessly

until it is reduced to nothing

but an empty shell

of what it was before,

without realizing

that they are only hurting themselves.

For, while the truly beautiful

will recover from their wounds,

the vandals of Life

will never overcome their guilt.

Thoughts at the Witching Hour

I lie in bed at night

staring up at the enveloping darkness

and truly dark it is,

black as the pitch and tar

making up the highways of the world –

yet I am not afraid;

my mind traverses the infinity of emptiness –

my thoughts, restrained all the day long,

run free, now, over the plains of imagination,

knowing no boundaries –

I am utterly relaxed,

in tune with the twists and turns of Life,

and this is why I relish this hour

this is why the dark does not frighten me

for what is it, really,

but a different kind of light?