Category: Community

                       As the road wound

                         through hard terrain

                           I sometimes doubted

                             my ability to go on

                               But I fought back

                                 the Fear

                                   and worked through

                                     the Pain

                                       with the help of my

                                         Friends along the way

                                       As time passed by

                                     the road ascended

                                   Obstacles less frequent

                                 but harder to pass

                               And at times

                             I needed the

                           places of refuge

                         respite and care

                       offered to me by

                     Friends along the way

                 I’ve come to the crest

               of the mountain

             I’ve climbed

           As I look down below

         I see all of the

       barriers crossed

     the challenges I met

   and the lessons I learned

 I will never forget those

Friends along the way

I despaired of ever finding it again

though I searched for it begged for it

cried long hours and days

at its demise and denial

Free to experience passion and joy

Free to grow, free to feel, free to love

Free to laugh, free to cry, free to sing

Free to live rather than merely exist

As the days slowly passed by

He wondered what life was meant to be.

As the years slowly accumulated

He wondered what love was.

Inside the dim recesses of his mind

Was a glimmer of another life.

Crouched in the corner of his brain

Afraid of the light of day.

The man came to a place and time

Where there was no point to his life.

He gave up trying

To find the path to happiness.

But as his life crumpled into non-being

The sliver of consciousness in his brain

Asked if it could have a try

At finding love and acceptance.

The man gave up his body

To the new being who fearfully

Peeked out from the prison

That was the man’s fear of living.

She was a timid being

Having known no other emotion

Save an all-consuming fear

Of being discovered.

Now she had nowhere to hide

And was forced to learn how to survive.

As she came forward to greet the sun

Society drew back in horror.

She tried to show

That she was better now,

At last a whole person.

But Society was filled with fear.

She changed the man’s body

Into something she thought

Society would accept.

But Society would not forget the past.

So she was cast out from the nest

Alone in the wilderness

Of loneliness and desolation of the soul.

And she could not understand.

Every day is

not today

Fear gone

becomes anger

becomes me not

Am I like a wildflower

Providing beauty in the wilderness?

Or am I like a weed

That needs to be removed from a lawn?

Can I find someone

Who will love me as I am?

Or am I to be doomed

To a life of loneliness?

New environment

Learn to fit in

or face rejection

Is it ever enough?

There are always bigots

“Learning to fly

but I ain’t got wings”

And coming down

can smash your face

into the ground

It’s like trying

to pair up old socks

only much more serious

What portion is me

and what part pretense?

Non-vital essence

What only exists

for the sake of appearance

for convenience

for comfort, safety?

Being dead is safe

eventually

Learning is so hard

Learning how to exist

painfully harder