I can remember
when the sun never shined.
When the earth was stale
when I ought to have been blind.
Every movement
every turn of the head,
found the black of night
and the slumber left my bed.
I pretend to practice righteousness
but the world has taught me not.
Especially when I give thought to
the pain of times I have not forgot.
Not forgotten
was when the sun never shined.
And when I turned my head
the light my mind could not find.
The road turned me
back to this place,
from where I came I returned
into valleys staring me in the face.
I asked the sun
to show a path forgotten.
Yet no angels appeared
and within came something rotten.
Darkness led me to famine.
Life left me blind.
My ire became the sun yet suddenly
the dawn my eyes did find.
There was my nephew
newborn and bright-eyed.
As my sister put him in my hands
the darkness was cast aside.
New life, family
made my movements clear.
The black of night left me
and slumber for my soul appeared.
Innocence in insanity.
Order in disorder found.
Life can bind the hands.
Despair and you become bound.
Yet as the cold night consumes
and the earth steadfastly turns,
night will turn to day rebirthing
salvation to calm our burns.
For my nephew Gavin.
