This night sleeps
as the mind lays awake, restless
in the humid escape of insomnia.
I am alert as time cuddles me tight, motionless
into the tease of a new day. In this moment,
as a gentle breeze knocks calmly against the window
of a dream, memories
flow through my head like
cinematography taking me places back in time
where reality is now a fragmented portrait
of the past. I see faces of childhood
roaming naturally through fields of summertime
in different states of innocence. They are laughing
and smiling as they play through urban streets
decorated in 1985 memorabilia. Flexible bodies breakdance
on cardboard boxes and there is a music mix of hip-hops newborn
cry filtering beats through the sky. There was magic in adolescent eyes
and I can feel the freedom
of the air as if I was there again. Those days
when youth was the celebration of a journey;
a passage into a tomorrow unknown, but filled
with the smile of promise. As I lay myself to wake tonight, sleepless–
I am that tomorrow. Many years since my thoughts
have matured and my visions have expressed but in my heart
I still feel the victory of July, when as a child
I found the beginnings of my growth and as an adult
have found the luxury of a blossoming love, which I remember
believing could only happen in a dream.
And on this night, as the darkness fades into the sensuality
of sunrise, I realize
that life has marinated my soul
into a tender movement of emotion.
© 2012
Tarringo T. Vaughan
