Thankful,

a short word denying a bond's regression

a soldier fighting the war

between conformity and expression 

When I wake I can

Taste the salt in my tears

Hurting from the burning desire

to conquer life’s treacherous journey

 hear the quaking of my eager 

footsteps heading nowhere,

yet craving to be everywhere

Aching to trudge through chains

and the glorious gains of 

Africa's people

Never taking sunshine for granted 

because it strengthens my roots;

feeds the evergreen hope in humanity

that God has planted in me

Kicking up buried injustice

and lifiting up liberty 

with an innocent smile,

while the world scoffs

and attempts to hold my happiness 

in exile 

Focusing on turquoise waves 

feeling their power, hearing their unruly 

cries of defiance geared

towards the limits man 

has attempted to place

on mother nature's children 

Unbelieving that I made it this far;

past verbal daggers and 

staggering demons ravenous

for a soul brighter than Alaska's

Aurora lights

and through the weight of

a gray scale uncapable of containing

a rainbow's striking hues

Looking towards the mountain peaks,

the clouds' silver lining,

the peephole in heaven's door,

the delicate candle flame

at the end of the long tunnel,

and out of my window at sunset;

the world brilliantly clothed

in the finest gold,

in conjunction with my future

glinting like the finest Sapphire

This is what my thankful

is,

simply living, and not 

just existing