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Sword of Maturity, a poem by Frederick Michaels

Sword of Maturity
by Frederick Michaels

Hand hammer forged,
purified in myriad layers
like innocent childhood wishes
folded into Xbox dreams
with young adult ambitions,
welding YouTube to Facebook.

Grown-up visions shaped
by iPhone and LinkedIn —
quenched in disappointment,
reheated in reality’s fire,
rehoned to a sharper edge,
polished to a brighter future.

Sheathed in scar tissue,
oiled by hard-won success,
hardened by experience
yet, soft as Corinthian leather,
her childhood wishes shine
like those in innocent eyes.

Bio: Frederick Michaels writes in retirement from his home in Indianapolis. His poetry has appeared in Flying Island, So It Goes Literary Journal, The Boston Poetry Journal, Branches magazine and Lone Stars magazine, among others. A number of his poems are included in the anthologies Reckless Writing 2012 and 2013 (from Chatter House Press, Indianapolis) and Naturally Yours (edited and self-published by Stacy Savage and Kathy Chaffin Gerstorff). His first book of poems, Potholes In the Universe, was recently published by Chatter House Press, Indianapolis. An engineer by training, Michaels has always been pulled to the side of the arts by his love of written words and the challenge of painting sense and feeling with them.