17 more reasons to be blue

There are 17 more reasons to be blue after what happened in Florida today. Sadly, Nikki’s poem, “Streaks of Blue,” from my 2013 novel of the same name, still applies today …

“Red, white and …
Streaks of blue
Far off the path
I search for truth

Live free or die
A state of beauty
Will we be next
To look to the sky
And find more stars
Than the night just passed?
Lessons never learned
The youngest of souls
Pay with their lives
So for them I cry

The rain in my heart
Soaks every ring
This paper on which I write
Once was a sapling
So young and new
But now it’s a vessel
On a lake
Beneath a cloud
And onto it flow
My streaks of blue

Again and again
More trees fall
No not me
But it might as well be
For I die with them

As the view gets clearer
And the truth gets nearer
I am sad to discover
That we truly are lost
So I look in the mirror
And dye my hair blue
So I brook through the mountains
And keep my heart true

I’ll blaze a new trail
No matter the cost
One without labels
One that is just
Souls are for saving
While we’re still walking
So strap on your packs
Your hopes, your boots
And keep your eyes open
For my streaks of blue

Yes, I’ll blaze a new trail
A path for the lost.”