Once More–Day Five October 5, 2017 #OctPoWriMo

Once More

Now I understand youth’s rawness
love’s wild joy that made sun’s slanted gold
too bright to bear
rejection, a ragged cut with serrated knife
loss, a frozen tundra, wasteland of despair

Too soon thick scars smother intensity
the foot plods through sodden sand
weighted by life’s sediment
to hear only faint echoes
of heart’s beating drum

In dusk I take knife to branch
pare down to tender core
unbearable beauty, sharp pain
reckless release from life’s incrustations 
to feel youth’s gold,
and the serrated edge once more