Standing guard over portals/of life and more life/I am as fierce/as the sun/I laugh as fierceness migrates/my friends circle the astral sphere/I cup the bowl of earth/with all my might

Some travel/though it only becomes a sacred journey/when we realize/we will all be changed/the traveling with divinity/Never cycles in our control/we will/all will change/below us/around us/inside us/this sickness is and always was unto death/and into the bowels of life/we exhaust these living/down to the husks/put on the foam slippers/and walk and ride/ of the companions I don’t get to choose/I choose God/over/and over/every breath/every single step/I commit my spirit/into hands that hold/and which death/may never part

Marigold saffron prayers/drenched in sunlight/ever call me to my knees/to my hopes/for sweet tomorrows/for tides of sorrow/to subtly wane/for the light of sun and star and moon/to carry us on

I have seen this flower on many continents/ child of the tropics/bloom/bloom in all your beauty/child of the tropics/love/love with all your heat/child of the tropics/shine/shine with every understanding/live/though rain must fall

Place of sorrow and pain/also comfort/also freedom/fly/like a bird/in the wide/wide/sky

One rose/gracing the garden/a final rose of summer/in a place of final journeys/beginnings and endings/one sweet eternal rose/to say until then

The eyes/truly are the window/to the soul/watch the eyes/watch your eyes/nurture the light/with steady tinder/do not surrender your light/lightly

Together again/as we learned/enduring friendship travels/to midwife/rebirth/to care for each other/like sisters

The beauty her hands created/her artist’s eyes saw/also the beauty in us/forever woven into the fabric of our hearts/the beautiful enduring struggle of life

Sweet is the journey/on friendship’s road/whether the IRT 4/the D to Bedford Park/or through the blue skies/we were daughters/girls/young women/mothers/together/across miles/now we travel new roads together/ blessed to be friends/sister friends/to the end of the line