Sunflowers and Brick Walls

You had a chip on your shoulder
from day one.

But you were never empty:
you were warm,
full and vibrant.
You held out your hand to me.
I was little and lost,
and you knew the way.
I was a dreamer,
a drifter,
and we were both so full of life.

I set the nearby tents on fire.
They reduced to a pile of ashes
on the ground,
but I rose with the flames.
I lightened with the smoke,
and I became a sunflower
stretching up into the sky.

All my memories
were left back down on the ground;
I always soar too quickly
and forget what I've left behind
until it comes back to bite me.

You came back to bite me,
a leftover sting
too quickly forgotten
and I nearly drowned in my shame.

But I got back up again-
I got up, and tried again
and all of the toxins
in my frame, in my face,
in my disposition
could not shoot me from the sky
not this time.

I have branches and pathways
well-beaten, unbroken
and I will sing
until every soul remembers how

I will sing
until I can see the people painting
in the streets;
dancing in the parks and the fields

freed from their invisible chains
silent clan warfare
whispers in the night,
the rat race,
"keeping up with the Joneses"
indeed.

They will race to their freedom
and follow their dreams
to the ends of the Earth
and I will sing
as I always do;
my love is so textured
and colourful,
from today I will remember
where I was meant to go.