Do You Mind

Do you mind If I share a dialogue? My chalice of truth and reality Is far too full to contain the depths of my soul A chalice of roads trod, rivers crossed, and mountains climbed Bearing a brew too overpowering and juxtaposed To consume in solitude Come share in my abundance Lest I overflow. Do you mind If I share a smile The sun in my face Reflects the sun on a topaz sky Reflects the gurgle of a newborn Reflects the grace of the cotton-tailed hare As does the sun The joy of a friend The harvest of effort The awakening from a dream to a dream-filled reality Creates a warming hearth within me A hearth that comforts but never burns Come bask in my warmth Lest I grow cold. Do you mind If I share a tear? My portmanteau is heavy-laden With the tears of grief, fear, and shame Tears of my own vulnerability Tears of distrust Tears of surveying the parlor of felicity But an unidentified hand holding me back Preventing me from entering Tears from screaming for help at those in that parlor Until my voice is bereft of speech Yet no one even notices Tears at believing that even God has turned a deaf ear Tears at saying farewell to loved ones all too soon And forever accosted by enemies and naysayers Tears at the eternal thunderstorms Thunderclaps that ascertain that misfortune is imminent Crystal balls of hail that smash all goodness into oblivion And floods that wash away all signs of its existence My salt-caked, drenched burden Has increasingly become overwhelmed Come help to relieve it of this liquid sorrow Before I explode. Do you mind If I share a hope? For as long as there is Air in my lungs Ink in my pen Paper on my desk And a God in Heaven There is hope. Hope, like a new spring With the budding of daffodils The sprouting of leaves And the melting of the remnants of a cruel season gratefully forgotten Hope, like the comforting embrace of a friend The respect of an opponent And the support of ones with nothing material to gain Hope, like a holy dove Begs us to acknowledge it And the leafy message it brings That life can be beautiful As beautiful as we make it Come nurture hope with me To keep it alive.