all steam evaporates
strong emotion settles
leaving the knowing;
all things in balance.

Sculpted faces,
aging drama queens,

all the world's stages, this
is after those, these depths
of despair, where no pieces fit,

Kintsugi, fractured flash bulb scene,

an instamatic moment, a Kodak memory.

Kindness
was a house.

Knitted by
knowing you.

It was made
of sticky notes.

Encouragement
aching for actions.

Friendship
is the fuel.

Hearts only
in its windows.

Looks didn’t
really matter.

A firm foundation
invisible.

Gates of wisdom
walk to it.

Depression
laughed at it.

Gossip galloped
away from it.

The golden rule
knew better.

A tidal wave,
these bones smashes.
World goes black,
and a poison
infects pavement cracks.
A caught so surprise,
What has exposed
the colored butterflies
will end tonight.
And we explode
like little moths
drawn to shiny light
dead upon zapped.
Tiny vessels trembling
inside of tiny hands
in the flooding,
head so submerged
under green water.

I placed my hand on an orphan's head
and said, "Don't cry.
If you cry, your mom will cry too,
from heaven."

The child wiped her tears
with her ripped-off sleeve.

I kissed her forehead
and said to the Creator,
"Let me know, please, what you feel!"