The world

              Is so...

                         dark.

What I've been taught to fear

And what I hear

When there's killings,

                                 and beatings

                                                     and rape...

And yellow tape,

That tries to separate,

The community from the injustice of what has been done.

And the battle is not won,

When all about

Lives are being,

                          Snuffed.

                                    Out.

The world is so dark.

But sometimes there is a single flame

That

     cannot be

                  tamed,

That

     is not

           ashamed,

Of what it is:

Hope.

I see it in the streets

Where people are sometimes friendly to the people they meet.

And in the news.

When a convict decides to leave

Work and rescues,

A woman dangling from her seatbelt.

And I'm sure to the man in the jumpsuit, she felt

Gratitude.

These are the kinds of  things

I love to see

That uplift me

And my spirit to the stars.

And I smile at the realization

The feeling, the sensation,

That the world isn't as dark as I thought.

And there are people who are not,

Lost in a tragic web of

                                     darkness...

These good deeds I see,

My uplifted soul, declares

                                    Yes, I will remain whole and

                                                                                  YES, I will NOT SHOW

                                                                                                                    Fear for the UNKNOWN,

Because I now know,

With every drop of blood in my heart,

That the world is

                           not so

                                     Dark.