The Walk
Step by step we walk
Stop, sit down, and talk
Everyone at their own pace
I’ve learned that it’s not a race
As easy as the flight of a bird
Simplicity that’s never before occurred
With peace, with trees, with friends
In my heart I know it’ll never end
Return to Home
A family history of broken ties and loose ends
Screaming and shouting, crying then sighing
I fled from the house that never felt like a home to me
But being outside repaired the damage once inside of me
Hurting became healing and troubling became treating
As I’m led to green pastures and beside still waters,
Like a child, I am restored in awe and wonder
All this talk of nurture versus nature, but in the end, what does it matter?
A lineage more deeply rooted than the blood in my veins
I call her Mother Nature, I call him Father Creator
They’re calling me back,
So I return to home
An Unspoken Understanding
There was an unspoken understanding between the two of us
Between that little girl and me
She had her bright pink backpack on, full of number two pencils and notebooks for school
I had mine on, too, full of life’s necessities from clothes to shampoo
We couldn’t be headed off to more different places,
But there was an unspoken understanding between the two of us
We had the same straight black hair,
The odd ones out among the other choices: blond and brown
Same eyes,
Four dark shades in a sea of blue and green
We’re not like the others
So there was an unspoken understanding between the two of us
Her eyes,
Those eyes that resembled mine
For a moment so big, so startled, like she’d committed a crime
Stared so directly and straight into mine
Somehow seeing another that’s unlike the others made my solitary existence oh so clearer
This younger reflection of me exposed so much
About how really truly different I was
But more frighteningly, how dangerously blind to it I can be
For my differences, I believe, bring out the best in me
Camino Calls
The silky shimmer of sea as it calls along the shore
The freedom of forestry and farm I’ve never found before
The rhythmic beating as sole meets soil
The body-shaking snores that brings us so much toil
The crackling cobblestones that catch beneath my feet
The scraping saltiness of sweat meets water between my teeth
The pulpy pitter-patter of my fingers post-orange peeling
For some reason, these Camino calls just give me a fantastic feeling