"Back from That Place"

So cynical the way I have become; so pitiless with myself. I shelter my own child from the world and the way people's words can steal the dignity from a day. Yet, I have learned to shrink from their biting sarcasms. Am I satisfied with empowering myself in morning soliloquies, like some foolish boy whistling in the dark? When did my dreams become second rate shadows of the beliefs of my youth? But do not pity me, my story might just be unending. Inside me holds fast the widening gaze of a sturdy adventurer. I feel his hat beginning to tip against the wind of a foreign coast. When this fast a goodbye comes, only sweet freedom sets the sails.