The snow has stopped
And the firs shed their diamonds
To flash in the sun

I am my evil twin

when I let the worst of me

get the best of me.

They are nine and seven, men and women, brothers and sisters all, most of them married, two or three wishing they were, and all burdened by the test their instructor has laid upon them without notice.  
Anxiety, in such cases, is a quick companion, ready at an instant to stand at your shoulder, and to whisper every conceivable fear into your heart as a certainty from which there is scarcely a chance of escape.  If anxiety is a house cat, then a pop quiz is a can opener.
  
A cough from one of the women…   a pen rolls on a table.  A page is turned.  The class drags on…

A cool summer night;
the blades of the fan echo
a passing airplane.

I gathered dry wood
in the middle of winter,
building a rough nest,

But when I finished
I set it ablaze, thinking,
This should be a pyre.

I don't mind it much,
this controlled descent, to whit,
going down in flames.

If I burn it all,
I'll burn as an offering;
I will rise again.

The phoenix, I have read,
does it all the time.

A word for the peaceful muslim,
who has no stomach for violence,
no passion for conflict,
no appetite for blood,

Stop laying your job at my feet.

I know you're not all mad, or murderers,
And know good and well
that most of you just want
the same thing that we want.

To raise your families in peace.  

Trouble is, you see, that the peaceful majority
has never been relevant
in the shadow of the violent minority.
They fly your flag, and they keep a ****** agenda.

Just ask the Germans of 1945.

So I thank you to stop making it my job
to change public opinion about your religion.
If yours is one of peace, then prove it.
You've a lot of history to overcome, but...

Start by curbing your savages.  
Then start loving your enemies.
Then try becoming their friend.

Wind, hard-blown from a city
on the shore of Lake Michigan
gray-blue sky over water
gray-red sky over town
the tornado sirens fall silent
and the skyscrapers blur
with the sudden onrushing
of rain.

Gray sky and thunder

The rain follows, ever falling, ever blowing

in a wind of discontent

I see the emerald leaves

dripping in the trees

and I see that a single leaf

is assaulted

by a spout of water

from the rooftop