Character

Poetry by Omar Sabbagh
Photo by Vince Mariel Conlu

First, let her believe in the goodness of things;

from out of the bowl of her heart the burst of a guiltless song.

Let her fall from the hardened garden of hanging lies

simply because the leaves there are blue, dud, death-dyed.

Let her know truth, a truth, her grand iconic points

those of a star, filigree between the dark blue joints

of other nightshades. Let her think always

of light as the only reed to follow, the only gate

of worth, rank, in a world that may always try to try her

with its darkness, mist, seemingly closed to surrender.

Let her grip the silver coin of character, smiling grace,

and her fig-hued lips without a wait across her face.

Let her speak well of people, at the last, and even when

they sully her name in the hurried death of a guilty vein.

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