Rivers & Levers Poem by John Sensele

Pick up a gauntlet, draw a line in the sand
Smile if you can, with good grin shake a hand
Outstretched to welcome you into a planet
Where friendship fiends navigate the YouTube craze in a daze on the Internet.

Pick up mantles of forgiveness, ride away indifference
Lead not a life of ostentatious affluence
But embrace orphans, widows and prostitutes
Forced into trading their bodies by economic attributes.

Pick up your pieces, diss no one
Acknowledge progress made and battles won
At the pinnacle of your career as a care giver
A heart mender, a bridge builder and a forgiver.

Pick up threads and remnants from romance
In which years of commitment and total devotion advance
Yield a field of ups and downs because a lover
Jilted you, cheated you, wilted your soft center lever.