Embrionic shell

sheltered.

Roots run deeply

shoots spring forth 

to the light of 

Day, Truth, and Life.

Steadily, steadily, 

loving

trusting.

Intermission-------

The winnowing years:

the limbs of hope

painfully pruned.

In the bud of his life,

my brother is buried in the soil

in which I was enriched.

Roots are too deep to die as well

so I weather the storm

and shun the sun

until one day 

I awake 

in the garden of a family 

whose tears

have watered itself healed.