set Anne Frank free

there’s a demon that has robbed our souls

he wears a mask and a self-made crown 

spewing his flames through his mouth and nose

and we the victims are but cartoons in media

as we smolder in charred black and smoke

how did we close our eyes and let him in

to pull us down into this abyss where there’s

swirls of fire and pain as we stood holding

hands in complacent and comfortable bliss?

a garden we once had sowed where the daffodil

and sunflower ‘growed’, the rose and the tulip

sharing the soil in the rain, the sun breathing

in the wind and they dance under the moon of 

night and starlight in different colors of attire is

discerned, only, in the gatherings by daylight  

too many souls have now taken to hiding and

writing their notes, like a million Ann Franks,

in their attics quietly under candle-light and

their scripts read of anguish and angst knowing

in their heart, if they cease from watering the lily, 
the rose, the daisy and tulips, the garden 

will be no more

shall we take shelter from this dark cloud rolling

in with this masked demon at the helm or shall we

fill our water jug and quench the thirst of the tulip,

the lily and daffodil, re-till the soil with seeds and  

saplings so that they may grow setting free the

Ann Franks of the world and their souls