Trusting The Light

So many colored days,
When sun-bleached skies are like oceans
And plumes and pillows of clouds
Are like islands and peninsulas drifting
Beyond the reach of storms.
When green bellies of bushes bulge,
And silver summer heat sparkles
Like glittering mist lingering in the air.
So many colored days, so long ago.

Once I could turn the world upside down
And dangling from green limbs of grass
Shake loose sunlight from graying skies.
I could fly between the thick brown trunks,
Wooden pillars of stalagtite trees
Reaching to the skies below.
All things were ascending, enlarging,
New, equal, and within my grasp,
But even dreams can fall to the earth,
And even the brightest colors lose luster
And bleed with time.

Time turns the world in the other direction,
Hemming sunlight in fading fabrics,
Its white shine dulling to autumn brown
Like oak leaves after fall's first blue chill.
Clutching colors still swirling within,
Words like purple sparks fall from my fingers
And burn apart the strangling black knots
That leave me gasping for grace to grow.
I will mold new shades from my soul,
Streaming blue shafts of light will pierce silence
And surround each touch of my hand
With a glow, illuminating what I did not see.
I cannot turn the world upside down now
And will never trust sunlight again.