My eyes brimmed with tears as I read the timid, scrawled words written before me. A poem was left on my bed in the middle of a loud, obnoxious movie night in celebration of my parents' vacation. In celebration of freedom. And in between these antics, one of my very best friends had left a sheet of paper on my bed. I didn't notice it until I made my way back upstairs to get blankets and pillows, but there it was: black scribbles on a paper trimmed in yellow. The poem was titled, "Colleen."
I'm going to write it now, just as it was written on the paper (but I have corrected the minor spelling errors, because I just couldn't retype those for you to read, but the grammar will stay the same. ;-P)
"*Her eyes shift through shadows in search of something more.
She is a creature of hope and faith.
Patience comes naturally to her.
Because she has seenthe wrongs done by this world.
Don't be fooled by her glee-filled eyes.
Tears as large as the stars have fallen from these eyes.
Still she hopes.
"To stay in the light truly is a trick,"
She says as a child would tell of a simple game of "hot lava,"
"You must keep your head in the clouds,
while still having your feet on the ground."
This sense of logic must be what keeps others around her.
A rock in an ocean of heartlessness.
But look into her sea eyes and see that a heart is what she needs.
This is one reason I love her with everything in me.
Yet still there is more.
But to take the time and truly explain everything would take a lot more
than this paper.
So to state it simply:
In your eyes the world is reflected with a glimmer of hope;
This is your talent
And I pray you never lose it.

Guidance is not what she needs.
Just a simple hand to reach for.
Or perhaps a heart to lean on.
Strength glows from within her,
Still she doubts.
"What if's" fill her head
As they do to us all.
Troubled she recedes into herself and pulls apart
things to be examined.
She analyzes with open arms.
Accepting the hard-to-swallow while looking through her purse
for a candy to wash it down with.
Gravely she laughs at this world,
Knowing that to cry would release everything else laughing may have left behind.
Staring with wonder at the world she created she wonders how.
I wonder how it could not have been.
To see self-worth
That is the grail
And only the end will tell of her campaigns as well as championships.
Still I pray for no ends, just beginnings for her.
Just open doors.*"

So I collapsed into my hollow bed and allow the star-tears to run down my cheeks.
This is beautiful. This is love. This is friendship. This is forever.
This is truth.