A Sweeter Sound - April 18, 2021

I bet my old desperate poems

chuffed through a raspy throat

and scribbled under wet eyes

never entered a single ear

my drawn-out struggle with youth

love and every shade of gray

impossibly clueless

in a fog of hidden moons

aching for greater light

today my voice sweeter with

acceptance deeper with contentment

cracks with a laugh when I stroll

those graveyards of darkness

though I’m smart enough to bring candles

to see where I’m going