KYLE SLEDGE

Measure my words true
So that I may sing
Songs of gratitude
Filled with harmony

Blessings brought by You
Bestow sweetest dreams
Visions rich in hues
Every coloring

Beneath fullest moon
And stars’ canopy
Light in darkness blooms
Just enough to see

Glimmers of our youth
Messages of peace
Lessons which You drew
In sand at our feet

Reading them anew
Their timelessness speaks
Louder than monsoons
Quiet as a thief

With grace soft as dew
Strength beyond degree
Love’s infinitude
You have rescued me

At night
I sit next to a quiet light
Dim, hushed, but true
It speaks of a soft nirvana
Of the glow inside of you

At night
I close my eyes to breathe in
Exhale, the deep dark hue
Repetition can be lonely
But rewards a richer view

At night
The sleep comes quickly
The dreams fast as sand
Slipping through an hourglass
Or the fingers of your hand

At night
The dawn is just beyond
The blackest of the blue
It breaks ever so gently
The whole sky born anew

Let us be
Like the waves
Crashing, yet calming
Cresting and falling
Our volume unbounded
Almost unfathomable

Let us hear
Like the trees
Silent, yet whispering
Muted and listening
To the wind’s song
Singing sweet harmonies

Let us see
Like the child
Clearly, yet pliantly
With jest and with piety
After all, even the pope
Wears a funny hat

Gadgets, technology, doodads galore
Every buzz, click, whir, can be such a bore
Soon, each of us will be saturated
With wires, implants, nanobots, and circuits
Chemicals from faceless corporations
Surging through our bodies in a surfeit
Complete consumer assimilation
I sit envisioning this in the woods
My back propped up by the trunk of a tree
Pondering existence for ill or good
While sunlight kisses and envelopes me
Matrices nested in one another
Networks founded just to rediscover

Out of the blue
The wave of you
Washes over me

The memories of
Our bayou days
Those leading to we

I didn’t know
Myself back then, much less
Your true beauty

If I could turn back time
I wouldn’t
For you found the love you seek