Inner Space

where thoughts roam grasslands
dreams spring like graceful gazelle evading hunger ravaged fear
ideas the bee-eaters, finches, sunbirds, kingfishers
delicate feathers sporting blues, greens, purple, red
shade and hue ignored, pure color
brown, grey, mix and meld with earth
--its dry sticks
swift, gone like that, another meal another Marula tree
another back of an elephant
the subconscious, influential
a slow moving mold of being
stable flat feet kick up brush, clear the way

a reflection of self in a serenely deep blue
where waves hug the shore tight
along the inlets and points of mind
sand and sea’s convocation
the shallows, whose turquoise glow shelters corals
threatened, easily weakened and corrupted
twisted and shattered
a code
moral

where truth is found like glow worms under stones
spacespacewhere purpose lies in high, curvy branches

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Dezmond Goff, age 14
Seattle, Washington
Lakeside Middle School
Teacher: Alicia Hokanson (2003 ROW Teacher of the Year)