Shine

Gleam.
Where the street lamps are broken, leaving 14 year old first-time hookers
unable to see what they’re getting into.
Then shine.
For the 14 year old last-time hookers and everything they went through.
Shine in the dark places.
Where shadows cast shadows against the backdrop of husbands who cannot stop
hitting their wives.
Where the children of brutalized mothers grow up blowing out birthday candles
wishing their fathers would die.
Spark.
In the wombs where unborn babies are getting high because their mothers won’t
even try to stay clean.
Gleam.
For the unseen victims of bullies who live like magic lamps within a demon like
genies waiting to grant wishes of violence when they are rubbed the wrong way.
Shine in the dark places and shine like the day because love never had a
childhood.
Because hate grows up too soon.
So shine where the silver spoon tarnishes itself against charity where teeth
sharpen themselves against frailty.
Where every family tree falls in a forest with no one around to hear,
and Dear John letters are composed by those who never learned how to read or
write.
And the only reason our hindsight is 20/20 is because we’ve had too much
practice looking over our shoulders.
As if we could expect to find behind us anything other than the mistakes we
made.
This is where debts paid for servitude are being taxed.
Where the fates of other countries are being faxed to phone lines tapped by
governments who are sending soldiers instead of relief.
Where every belief you believe in is questioned by those who can believe what
you believe if your credit card clears.
This is where a bus driver steers past the bus stop on the wrong side of town
because he’s thinking about his kids and how tomorrow’s headlines might read.
This is where need under-weighs want.
Where the ghosts of hip-hop hunt street corners rattling gold chains that shine
in the dark places.
Where a rookie hand traces chalk around the fallen body of an 8 year old boy.
Where leaders meet to deploy more soldiers on soil that is not their own.
Where hospitals are blown up for a part in the heart of a matter of the heart
that is breaking like the levies of a city forgotten by its own government.
This is where letter-bombs are sent COD to those already DOA, and this is just
FYI.
This is where the reasons why I mean about as much as a platinum-plated clutch
to someone who lost their leg to a land mine after being promised there would
be no more land mines.
This is where the lines we drew in the sand where crossed.
The unattended swimming pools where 2 year olds who could not swim were lost.
Where holocaust survivors are now the victims of Alzheimer’s leaving them
trapped in a nightmare past where the last thing they can remember is the first
thing they wish they could forget.
And they see their sons and daughters as nothing more than strangers they’ve
never met.
These are the dark places where we against all likelihood must shine just to
make sure we’re doing everything we can.
That we’re voting for every candidate who ran on a platform of maybe we’re more
than we’ve been told.
Maybe 100 years is not too old to start thinking about what it is you want to
do with your life.
So flash like the blade of the knives we hold to the throats of those that
would have us believe love isn’t for everyone.
Then shine so you know you’ve always been someone.
That the sun that shines for them shines just as bright for all.
That those we call friend lend strength to our backbone when standing alone
with something they can never let us do.
Because they packed their bags ready to travel with us past everything we go
through.
Preparing to shine in dark places.
To tie together the shoelaces of boogeymen, then shine under the beds and in
the closets.??
By the monsters move out we owe them nothing.
Because bedtime stories have never been about tragedy.
They’ve been about leaving breadcrumb trails to help us find our way back from
catastrophe.
We were never meant to live like millionaires going broke having spent
worthless fortunes living on uncertainty.
So we must shine for all the times others will not.
Like fireflies playing against the backdrop of midnight.
Because despite everything you’ve been told, you can be bold beyond what others
believe you to be.
So see in yourself what you wish others to see, be brave in a way others may
never know, live like the undertow which catches and keeps stars spread across
the night.
Shine in the dark places.
Lend the world your light.