In Spite Of It All, I Found Joy

I have heard that the darkest souls

Tend to glow brightest of them all

And the depth of their despair

Only reveals their gleaming spirits

That this is what makes them better

The fight against their demons

And the consequent joy cradled in bleeding hands

Presented to the world in atonement

Like the way a storm reveals the sun

A glaring stripe against the gray

Illuminating an angry sea

Churning it in colors gold and green

The sound of a bird’s cry

Against the backdrop of a broken city

Sweet syrup dripping from a gilded beak

As he falls effervescently into the sky

My mother’s hand run deep with lines

Missing the curve of her fingers against mine

And each passing moment until I see her again

Like the warm glow of a lantern guiding me home

Finding some kind of raw beauty

In the faces of my monsters

A tentative and waning hope

That there was still something left

That it was not the darkness

That spurned on my goodness

But that in spite of it all

Inside of me there was still light