Her big round eyes are electric blue,
Bluer than the sky that hides
The storm within me.
Her voice is the reason why
I stand in the puddle, splashing
Around like a child,
A child without worry, without fear.
Her Strength has sustained me
Pulling things out of me,
Things I never knew
Existed. She told me I was a leader once,
Once when people look beyond the dirt and the shame
Beyond the legs that straddles the street corners
At night, dressed in a shadow of someone else.
She told me I was beautiful once,
Once when hate and denial eats away at my heart.
But her great old eyes
Rimmed red and tired
Saw something in me
Something no one else could see.
I should have held on to her words
Softly spoken from wise lips
I should have believed her
But, believing was hard
My world, my life was hard.
Harder than the bullets that claimed my family, harder
Than the tears that have scared my face.
But her eyes, full of pride and hope
Turned a deeper shade, a magnetic blue
Like a storm they stirred my soul
Causing a change, a change powerful enough
To save me.
Nikki Moore© All rights reserved 2016
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