circular staircase

Pink fabric enrobed
Blue lines pages
Marked with a rose colored satin ribbon

Yellow legal pads
Erupting with tight cursive arcs
Of the characters in her head

Brown skinned girl bent over a book
Sheltered in her closet
Escaping into technicolor worlds
To world building in shades of her own

Hope rose from darkness

But
Little girls grow up
Big dreams overshadowed, left fallow

Buried
Beneath obligations and a sink of dirty dishes
Bright roots awaken

Cardinal clad
Gray lined pages
Bursting within a tight elastic band

From darkness, hope rose