Chronically Orange

I am the rosy peach flushed dawn

Ready to spark awake,

Yearning to kindle to a passioned flame,

To set life and love ablaze.

To touch the earth with color and light

With kindness and justice and beauty.

To change a generation, a person, a moment

For the better earnestly grips my heart.

And yet my life, the world, my body,

Fight me every step,

Dulling orange to an unfulfilled tarnish,

Cold and horribly still.

I cannot do it. Symptoms flare

If I dare to try,

Starving my scintillae of oxygen.

What am I to do?

Will I ever reach beyond

To touch the world with my fire?

Will I pass in a puff of smoke,

Never to gleam or glitter?

Regardless of the frightening unknown,

I resolve to try,

To gently glow with sunny purpose

Until my last breath is done.