Youth's Victory

by Sharon Skinner

I marched through childhood on bare feet.
wore tangled pigtails and scraped knees,
as badges of honor among my tribe.

Many a monster we slew or tamed,
captured fairies with swords of flame.
Warriors, we fought side-by-side.

On blackened mountains, showed our mettle
racing beyond forest and meadow,
flying on wings of faith and light.

Through it all, I kept the pace,
and oftentimes I won the race.
No fear or challenge left me behind.

But now that I am grown, I've seen
the meaning of mortality.
Now, prudence is my daily guide.

I've put away my sword and steed.
Become the Queen of cautious deeds,
who reigns oe'r safer times.

But when the shadows come to play,
I miss the me of yesterday
and find a longing in my mind.

Then I escape the grown-up me,
stepping between the light of day
and night time's starlit skies.

I plait my hair in tangled braids,
strap my flaming sword in place
and slip the bonds of time.

The Author

Sharon Skinner is an award-winning poet who received her B.A. in English from Ottawa University. Her work has appeared in a number of periodicals including Green's Magazine, New Moon Rising, Sage Woman, El Sol, The Mesa Legend, and The Barnes and Noble Metaverse Poetry Anthology.

Sharon moved to Arizona in 1981 after a four-year stint in the Navy where she learned electronics and traveled halfway around the world on the U.S.S. Jason, a repair ship and the first Naval vessel to take a contingency of women on a full six-month WestPac cruise. During her tour, she was the first enlisted female to stand shore patrol in the Philippines and, as the Saturday morning FM Rock Jock, served as the first female DJ to be heard on the Armed Forces Radio Station airwaves issuing from the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

About living in Arizona she says, "When I first came to the desert, I thought I had come to the ends of the earth. But after a short time, I realized just how much life teems and thrives in this harsh environment, and that is something I can certainly relate to."