Be What You Are

Frolic branches of trees shake, butterfly leaves flutter with the trail of summer squall the feisty forest plays. Don’t make your mind a denuded forest of clutter if with the flickering shadows of foliage at gloomy dusk it can’t sprint and play. Ballerina crests of waves swell, pearls on breakers shine, under storm-shattered sky in tempest the sea dances. Don’t make your mind an unsurfing sea that silently pines, if on the surge of upwelling tides of agonizing times it can’t roll and dance. Silver spray of sprinkles rises, harmonic water serenades, on stepped slope of the valley the hilly stream cascades. Don’t make life a lean stream meandering in dark shade, if in the rough course up and down of time’s topography it can’t leap and flow. Perched niche of nest crashes, scared chicks fly away, after midnight storm the lonely bird soars in cobalt sky. Don’t make life a bird of broken wings that can't glide in gay, if from the debris of wrecked hope in splintering times it can’t rise and fly. Quartz luster of sands simmers, jade cactus face shrinks, in the cradle of dunes the desert winds sing in the oasis. Don’t let your heart get desiccated at the desert's brink, if the lyric of emerald oasis in the blinding blizzard of sand it can’t write and sing. Be true to yourself, remain what you are meant to be, the mind will play and dance with the shadows of despair, the deserted heart will sing the oasis song of ecstasy, the wrecked life will rise again from the debris of agony, if you are what you are. August 21, 2021 Contest : The Marmite Poem Sponsor : Natasha Scragg