it’s your shell that lets you wander where I live
(in the red sands and blue rocks,
on the edges of the green and grey sea)

you aren’t slow…you are sure
careful, and once finding (SNAP)
never letting go

your shell is the map you read (from inside)
and that is how you made your way (in edges)
to the treasure long forgotten and buried deep (in secret)

to you it is right there! (right freaking there, Martha!)
plain sight. but bringing it back? HAH! (climb on, Mary!)
it’s up to the treasure to climb aboard (Charissa, skootch over!)

(um, NO! good luck getting my seat, everyone else! grr!)you will tell stories, turtle tales heard by patient ears
wise and ancient, but fresh and innocent
and simply not capable of dropping
them you love

cus we live in you (you let us!)
inside that shell, ponderous to others,
so comforting to us, to me (especially to me)

inside that shell, so small and hard
outside, dull and disguised
but inside the hall of gods limitless!

I’ll run, sprint even, til I am tuckered
and tongue trailing my trilling song.
but always I will ride, ride in the rest

of you.

love forever, your special needs catagory, Charissa