Child,
your heart leaps
before your mind can stop it,
and you blunder through
forgotten tides with sails unmatched.
Too fast for broken knees
and too smart to bloodshot eyes.
You've remembered how to be
a soft kiss, gentle
to all but the one you can't quit.
With ambition the knife in your back
and passion a no good lover,
you've reached an asphalt end
with the rubber of your soles burnt flat.
So run away to the other side of the world,
without your feet all the way on,
to chase uncaught things
with a butterfly net
and always turn up empty.
Instead, Child,
when the acid rain is beating down your skin,
muddy up your boots.
Learn to dream with eyes unclosed
and lips to know no quiet.
Be hungry, be wild, be bold.
Hold the sun in your fist in the morning
and keep it in your pocket until noon.
Love with a ferocity
that crawls into the smiles, teeth, and tongues
(yours most of all).
Catch your breath in your throat and swallow it.
Let open windows be open mirrors,
and both be your call to the jungle.
For you have a mouth that glows,
and eyes that do, too.
Don't snuff them out.