This morning the wind whipped
The rain into a storm
Each drop pierced with sunlight
And I realized,
I don't need you.

The wild joy of youth
In the face of a government shutdown,
History being made,
Tonight
I realize, I am free
To be brilliant
Kind, passionate,
All the things my parents
Don't want me to be
And you don't understand.

I can love someone else now
Someone who cares --
Closer than the wakening wind
Through the storm of life and death
Present in the glistening rain
And the sun taking its first breaths.