The Adolescent Ghost (Poetry)

I once led a life of quiet desperation
introspective — kept my feelings close
hope the only light to guide the journey
while love’s own promise haunted like a ghost

My thoughts pulled tight into a knot of longing
for freedom to express each schoolgirl dream
but bars of disapproval held me speechless
my spirit cowed, my blood an iced-up stream

The bud stayed frozen through an Arctic winter
potential caught invisible within
denied warm words to tease it into growing
the homespun landscape resolutely grim

At last rogue sun seduced my heart to flutter
provoking change — a subtle blossoming
and thus the flesh escaped parental bondage
the voice emerged and taught itself to sing

Those songs I hoarded when my youth was muted
now burst spontaneous upon the page
the rawness and pure angst of adolescence
since tempered by experience and age

The lines run on and echo from the mountain
that rises from the past — its incline steep
the years of snow have melted from its summit
to form this lake a thousand poems deep