The search

I seek
    security,
            love,
                happiness,
                    honesty.

I know
    guilt,
            shame,
                    blame,
                            deceit.

I shall
    mourn sadness,
            release anger,
                    face fear,
                            confess guilt.

I will
    find peace,
        accept joy,
               embrace pleasure,
                            face my destiny.

Sylvia Edwards

Passages

Somehow I have lagged behind
A virtuous virgin in the '60s.
a monogamous matron in the '70s.
a faithful female in the '80s,
a wistful widow in the '90s.

Here I am in a new century;
a fearful fool behaving like
a prickly prude of 1900
a chaste celibate of 1800
dreaming of decadence left behind,

Sylvia Edwards