Redemptive Love Poem by Uriah Hamilton

I’m envious of strangers
When their emotions are less constrained than mine,
When they don’t create
Emotional barriers
Like the ones I’ve constructed.

When I was young, this stone-cold face
Was not upon me;
I knew thrilling summer days upon a beach
Traveling the shoreline with sparkling eyes,
I ate exotic fruit in happy pleasure
And was in love with the golden dawn.

In those days, I followed the girls
Who wore long dresses
With the most adorable hemlines
That hung slightly above the grass
Along the garden path,
And I noticed every rose vine
Trailing white picket fences in the sunlight.

The rain began in adulthood
As youthful excitement ebbed
And the aroma of wine and flowers
No longer hypnotized me with desire,
As I accepted life more in terms of responsibilities
And less in terms of passionate expression.

But I will not remain forever
Exiled to forlorn rooms of discontent
With people too defeated to even pray,
I will again relive the joy of a morning light
Breaking like a chandelier.

Heaven will gaze affectionately upon me
Because I’ll learn to possess mystical redemptive love
To no less a degree than an innocent child
Who only believes in the kindness
Of a human smile.