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Take my hand. We shall walk
Along these fields of wheat so ripe
Far from the men in cloaks of hate
By the veil of clouds concealed

To the places we are young
In the shadows of red and white
By the Black Sea at sunset
We shall dream of olive trees

In their shade we are young again
In their arms I yield to you
Pure as any child can be
Crying for the blood-soaked earth

My tears afraid for all the world
That toils and burns and is not you.

I'm not sure of some of the symbolism though feel it's religious in nature ... the shadows of red and white by the black sea is an interesting one that leaves me curious; as you've just mentioned youth it makes me thing of the joke 'whats black and white but red all over?

I was in Bulgaria .. and it felt like I was walking in the shadows of history ... not least as a Jew, and among the Roma ... the earth containing layers of blood through the decades. The red and white were allusions to the communist and fascist periods of dominance, the shadows to their heavy, lingering ideas .. and the poem is seeking innocence in Love as an antidote, an alternate ideology ..... Well, that was something of the intent!!

I love your intent and the ways you chose, Morgan.