The Inner Light

Our world is all but uniform; it wears

A thousand hues: blues dye the seas and sky;

Green, hills and fields; red, wrath and blush, and there’s

A gem for every shade that meets the eye.

And natural light, the source of color, though

It has none of its own, lends beauty to

The world, delight to us, and makes us glow

Under the sun. Since I was young, I knew

I had to be this light. All lamps burn out,

And stars fade into day or night, but should

My own gleam color who I am, without

Others’ esteem, then freedom find I would.

For inner light defies the fickle source

That gutters after altering our course.