Her Unwavering Glance

The eyes of a child

Are wide and

Open to a world of stars

A world of magic and the impossible

They shine like moonbeams

They reach towards a world where

Nothing is unattainable.

Always looking forward to a bright light

To the radiance of what is ahead

Nothing can stop those eyes

From their aspirations of what’s next

From their dreams reaching the sky.

For they dwell in such a world

Where the heavens sing forth their songs of hope

And the clouds rain wonder and majesty.

In this world there lies no shadows

There are no monsters lurking around the corner or under the bed

But instead

There are endless opportunities

And dreams can always come true.

But as we grow

Our eyes dim,

And they narrow

They open to a screeching sound,

A world of metal clashes,

And a world of contradictions.

They reach for nothing,

Lost in a water-less sea,

Less swimming

but stumbling,

Falling and tumbling.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel,

No waking dream afloat

In the star-less sky of night.

In such a world

Fire consumes and destroys

And chaos reigns.

They are beaten, and damp,

And shadows fill their memories

Found buried in the core.

What makes the change from bright to dim?

What allows the starry skies to fade?

How can a world so pure and innocent turn into one with war and hate?

In blueberry eyes I found the answer

Placed on the face of a beautiful blonde haired girl

Or at least the hairs were colored gold

Before the world ripped them out

Her eyes had no logical reason to radiate such light,

A lifetime of pain and misery

Crammed into a span of seven years.

Time after time

She thought her battle won

But the cancer always returned,

And the doctors always lost hope.

But her ocean eyes never strayed

Her faith strong enough to make the mountains quake,

And her hope for a miracle always remained

Her quiet courage always pressed on

And her eyes retained their gleam

Her eyes shone with Heaven’s luminescence

And in the midst of all of the pain

They never showed hint of a complaint.

The epitome of her name

Annie emitted grace

And in the seas of her eyes there was

An infinite capacity to love

Without fear

Without judgment

Without inhibition.

And that is why they never dimmed like all of the rest

That is why the switch occurs.

We let fear consume like cancer.

We fall victim to the world’s trap.

Where logic can only restrain us

And there is no more room for hope.

We allow the world to tell us lies.

We don’t fight the cancer in our heads.

The logic backfires.

And terror settles in.

And before we realize it

The light is gone,

Faded to nothingness.

And the cancer has won.

For we allow fear to dictate our actions

And we become puppets in our own lives,

Puppets with glassed-over eyes.

Eventually the light in Annie’s eyes needed to extinguish

She had fought with every last breath

Her suffering is finally finished

And she rose on eagle’s wings

On the journey we must all take

home home.

And within my heart I am sure those eyes still contain

All of the love they always have, In fact

I am positive they hold even more than before.

She had a strength I envy

and trust I try to emulate

She embodied all I yearn to be

and she did so as a child

She believed in Truth with all her heart

and loved fearlessly like I never could

It was through her eyes that I learned to see the world

And through her eyes that I feel the world will learn to see.