Fortaleza Poem by Hannington Mumo

As a loosed bird and the broad liberties of the sky,
So have been long life's borderless freedoms and I;
I often have kissed countless trolls' decoying lips,
And thought their lush mouths such nectared tips.

I severally have ridden on the precarious backs
Of seamless airs and on swift-swimming sharks,
Whereon Fate and Time had gigantic glutting turn;
Soiling the white soul in which raging embers burn.

I never have seen vast humanity's single heart,
Kind enough to lend even a distant aiding hand;
Always have larger world's gloatingly fired eyes
Weirdly relished this one-man's lamenting band.

Never have greenest dreams and rawest sorrows
Met so juxtaposedly on bullish life's shifting plane;
Nor guillotined goals thus defied Destiny's gallows,
To pay with hope such low lot as only pariahs gain.

He's never alone who with his intact dreams abides,
For fortune will someday show her soft hidden sides.