BY PAMELA JO BOWMAN – MESA ARIZONA –

Dandelion dust sparkles in the twilight.
Slithering on taut toddler tummy.
Grass stains embedded on scraped elbows and knees.
Cherubic fist clutching the flowered weed.
Young thing run, hide then seek
Search with eyes wiser than tender years
Lick away salty, stubborn tears.
You’ve seen more than you should.
You know more than you understood.
Young thing run and find and seek.
Unplanned, unwanted, unknown.
You count.

One, two three. A,b,c, do, re, mi.
So visible the whole world can see.
The splendor of what you are blind to be.
Don’t disappear in the ancient shadows.
deafened by words old and wrong and dead.
You are bright, a loyal, external, luminous light.
Shine around and through the bad, the good, the true.
Understand what others denied but knew.
You count too.