Tonight, the earth is thriving.

All of the birds are sounding off.
Wet rainforest air catching,
throwing back echoing songs into the
breathing trees, towering.
Waves crash hard onto the shore,  
I mean it this time and don't
make me show you again!
Showing us again, again.
Girls in short, fluttering skirts
prance through the street in tall heels,
summer wind slipping through the
valleys of concrete jungles.

It is said that anger is a secondary emotion-- While
white hot rage swiftly climbs your ladder of ribs and seizes the heart,
something more vulnerable came before it.

Tonight, the earth is wild.

Looking at the super moon, I am searching for
anything softer than fury. Wondering what possibly came before I was
mad enough to *****, laughing bitterly instead.

Before, hugging me hard,
making me sure she meant it,
"Hi, Honey" came from her lips,
a voice too sweet to be natural.
Before, I called her Mom and
stopped knowing what the word meant.
Both of us made things
easy, until they got hard.
Before I was mad, I was happy.
There was a time it wasn't taxing to
remember our laughs tangling
into the brisk autumn air.

Growing old enough to realize we had all done
a dangerous thing, smashing two broken families into one house
and calling it whole. A full home of people feeling empty.

Tonight, the earth is warm.

Her eyes were a clear blue, thinner than water and
colder than frost, constantly shouting out the way she was lost.
Just there behind them, she was trapped, clawing to get free.

I took to feeling sorry for her to fight a blooming hatred while
savage teeth cut into my lip, holding back heaps of "how could you?"
Squeezing my eyes shut, I sat shivering in the afternoon sun.

I told my brother that I was sure I didn't love her at all,
Seeing a reflection of my hardened expression in his young face.
I said I would have to fake cry at her funeral.

Tonight, the earth is electric.

Tears on my cheeks and burning in my throat,
I despised the thought of being like her. Only making me more like her.
A terrible silence settled into our lives, emphasizing all voids

I was up late on a school night, gathering few belongings and my
dignity in a black trash bag. Driving away from that house on the hill.
Loneliness in the night chasing after a full back seat of children.

Tonight, the earth is alive.

Forgiveness is a tricky thing, the act occasionally coming
prior to the decision. Revealing the before, the hurt of missing something I had
wanted so badly. Bathing in bright moonlight,

tonight, the earth is listening.

Tonight, I would cry at her funeral.

Tonight, leaves me quietly sobbing, I have been betrayed.