THE DAWN

Murky and venomous my words have been,
Echoing a ill and dwindling world.
Visions of demise and continual injury
Have been scrawled upon these vacant sheets.

Too long my heart has poured forth fury.
Ache and loss have intertwined.
My children born have lived incased
On lonely paper in impotent rage.

But now!...

Finally this bitter spell does break,
The past, its hold relinquishes.
No more my days lived years before.
The future now my soul does call.

O glorious day, marvelous night
That holds my passions and buries my pain.
My heart leaps forth wanting to live,
As once it was and once more shall be.

My body animated by an unworldly force
That raises my banner to challenge the world.
It was, shall be, as if never once broken,
Whole once more to face the dawn.
--------- by Arlindo Costa