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