rain :: hope

it is Halloween morning

and pouring rain.

wake up & look out the window -

                                                                   black.

computer screen -

                                       glowing.

it is tempting

i know

to pay attention to the news stories

screaming for it, rushing past

like water in a river overflown.

they are drowned ghosts rattling their rusted chains

and i am the petrified child they've lured in.

e     x     c     e     p     t     :

i don't have to be.

we don't have to be.

we can turn

our backs on the void we are prepared to jump into

and become the healers, the bond breakers, the strong ones,

the heroes who worked together

to pull each other up out of the waterlogged gutters.

who said there are better things to listen to.

like the water.

like the rain.