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The Phoenix



Sometimes love is

Oxygen

You don’t know it is there

Because it has never

Been gone


Love was

Saturday morning

Hair tangled 

In my sister’s

Beside me

On the bed

Sun streams

Through the window

Dust glitters

And dances in the light

At the smell of sausages

And the sound of my mother’s 

Gentle voice


I was beautiful

Because I was alive


Love was

A candle 

That went unnoticed 

In a room full

Of light


***


Sometimes love is

A silhouette of hope

Drifting on black wings 

Away, far away 

From me


Love was

Try harder; pray more

Be worthy

To exist

But ever falling, ever sinking

Buried.  Darkness, underground

Then slowly fading…fading

Deep away

From the air and sun and light

And from the birds

The birds

Wheeling, rising

Free


I was beautiful

“If” and “but”--the fine print ever changing


Love was

An ember

Shielded in the dark

Craving flame


***


Sometimes love is

The rising sun

I’ve known the darkness

And I’ve seen

The morning come


Love is

Sunday morning

Laughing voices

Coffee’s almost done

Open windows

Gentle hands

Trace tattooed wings inscribed

Across my back

And I remember

Oh I remember 

How love rose up, a mighty fire

And led me through

The sea


I am beautiful 

Because I am


And love is

A flaming phoenix

Rising, ever rising

Towards the light


By, Phebe Granderson (7/6/2024)


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