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Compass of the Magi
by James Dalton Byrd

A wrong turn
         awoke a sleeping boy
                  within me.
A street not traveled before
        awoke a muse
                  and a new world was born.
        Places unseen
hiding behind an inactive imagination
        built of shades of gray
                then sepia
                     then
                vivid color.

I had lost the compass of the magi
                          and
             the map of dreams
    I carried when a child
          They had always led me to hidden countries
              just over the horizons of my mind.

I did not know
         they were still with me...
                  in a forgotten pocket
                          in a well-worn denim brain
I need to find my way again
        to new adventures
                to new passions
                        to walk barefoot in clover once more.

 

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