Beauty's Renewal

I woke to find a world devoid of war
where no one bears a grudge or locks his door
or fears to wander naked in the wild
or trust an unknown neighbor with his child:
a world where threat and peril walk no more.

I opened eyes to gaze upon a garden
where none still knows the need to plead for pardon
or beg for alms or seek a healing balm
or find a sage her tortured mind to calm:
a place of grace and peace beyond the Jordan.

I rose to walk in wonder down the strand
now free from heaven’s curse on life or land
where oceans churn with only gentle tides
and nature with its lords no more collides:
a paradise unstained on every hand.

I left my dreams behind to enter bliss
where death and wrong my Prince will all dismiss
and offer there with riven hands and feet
the prize which here is only bittersweet:
the sleeping Beauty’s pledged, awakening Kiss.


MNA 4.26.2015