Marking the Minds

Leave your mark, not just a signature but an imprint
Something future generations can grasp
Make it better than a footprint or fingerprint
Left in the sand or on a window of the past

Be a role model, a pattern for them to follow
A leader with valor, whose shoes are hard to fill
Challenge them with truth, a hope for tomorrow
Be sure that within them courage you instill

Not with your words, recorded on paper
For ink often fades away, too soon forgotten
But an existence of esteem and godly favor
Is history that will last in words spoken

A permanent impression in the cement
Of hearts still soft and pliable
Forming their lives like metal when bent
Is shaped into pillars so dependable

May your legacy be a shout and not a whisper
Setting the world ablaze with a passion
Like a fire that will burn and blister
An active volcano in full eruption

One action louder than any spoken word
Many lessons not taught but caught
Quick is forgotten the said, but not what occurred
Memories are experiences not cheaply bought

These kinds of statues are what will remain
In the galleries of memories and tales
Stories of those whose imprints sustained
That through time and repetition prevail

Your legend will last, so give it some thought
Now is your chance, strike a pose, take your shot
May the arrow you shoot leave behind
A mark in the target, the impressionable mind

Not a signature, but a mark, an imprint
Not a flag or fingerprint, yet a blueprint
A way to build, a pattern to live by
A reason to fight, a reason to die.

- Kesheena Levasseur 11/12/13