Teardrops in Memory

Whirlwind of memory –

Teardrops of ice and of freedom
Falling, falling from God’s kingdom.
Rolling, rumbling, roaring,
Thor’s hammer thundering.
Graceful, soaring, my soul
flying, spinning, dancing
To the soft beat on my frozen window;
To the fiery inferno of emotions within me
To the crackle and splinter of lightning in the night;
To the sparkle, the wonder, and the shining, dim light
of the sun, behind clouds that are marble and gray.
I listen to my mother;
"Stay inside," I hear her say.
"Don’t worry, I will."
…and I will fall astray.
Outside, it’s windy,
As I crawl out the door,
Shivering, freezing:
I can’t stay too long.
The promise, broken, lies shattered in the air,
But refusal to linger gives time for me to spare.
I throw my arms wide,
Fear gone from my mind
Blackened dust burnt for one fine
load, a burden, lashed and forgotten,
Spat on, stamped on, lost and unfounded,
Forever brought to ground by the words of man –
And to the hazy, hellish sky I cried…

I cried of glory, a story of joy;
I cried of sorrow, not one of tomorrow;
I cried for the stars and the moon and the sun;
Of seasons lost and wings unfurled,
Reasons forgotten and dreams untold,
Raging fury and furious rage –
Wars neverending and the wrath of the "gods";
Brown-nosers, do-gooders, and anyone like them,
Bad ones and young ‘uns and loners like me;
Madness and sadness and everything in between,
Holy and unholy, phony and faces stony;
Love’s symphony found within the dwelling of hatred,
Wrongs for their rights and rights for wrong reasons;
Defiance and the finance on which we depend;
Feasible opportunities and impossible dreams –
Everything in its time and everything at its place,
Life as it is and death as it isn’t;
For in the end, all will be as dust…

And then I awoke,
Frightened and provoked
into smiling, thinking, always forgetting
I’m one of them, too, one of those
humans, in time, in the lives we chose.
I stand, I grin, and look to the dawn in my window.
I see that it’s raining, pouring, clouds seething;
Teardrops of ice and of freedom,
A whirlwind of memory…