Hope is reborn as
Within a forbidden place
Darkness shifts
And light begins to glow;
A woman comes cautiously to life.
Answering the urging of her soul,
Her fears outmatched by hope,
She responds to that rare being:
A gentle man.
Warm of heart,
Kind in spirit,
He lifts her from her lonely shell;
And though nothing will come of it
She can't resist the call,
Or the sweet brush
Of what might have been.
And for a while she basks
In the joy of her womanhood
As she dreams the dreams
Of the heart.

c. 2016