Life Unstifled

Slow walk

     my breath

          hold it

Pause fretting to allow

     fragments of light

          from the periphery

Pulsating glimpses of

     wonderment

          healing

Life stories unstifled

     hope lifted from

          obscurity

Enfold pernicious

     despair into

          love reservoir

Reminder to

     control the focus

          decide the feeling

Standing off balanced

     in the mud

          seeing still the stars

Once and always

     move forward with         

         hope infused story

     Kang Koo Ri was lifted from the lifeless form of his mother in a valley of death and taken to the
orphanage. He would not--could not smile until the little girl broke through. When I took the picture
during the forgotten war in 1952, he was more like the little boy who couldn't stop smiling.  I was reminded of their story when I wrote this poem.
     *I tell more of the story in my YouTube video "The Little Boy Who Wouldn't Smile".