I am young, free
I leave school and get on my bike
To ride home in the rain
My jacket is wrapped around my backpack
Instead of me
To keep my books dry
I am quickly glad of that
As the magic of being
Together with the world in the rain
Takes me
And the joy of not being lonely
Not being
Dry while the rest world is dripping
Steals my heart
And I reach the bridge
Riding over the river
And I lose my breath
As the pain of loss shatters me
And I fear
That this world will be history
Before I am
This world
In which a girl can bike home through the rain
And I feel like
I am holding a baby bird in my hand
That fell from their nest
Letting their head rest on my chest
Knowing they will soon breath their final breath
And as I hold this moment in my hand
In my heart
And the beauty of the water and the sand
Tears me apart
And I can’t stand
My own cruelty
As I see that
The nest didn’t just
Fall
I see in my minds eye
A stone
Thrown
At the the fragile bundle of twigs
I see it falling
And I hate
That in that moment I know
My hand was one of the many
That clutched that rock
And let it fly
But
Still
We cannot leave this bird to die
And some people
Are rushing to their side
And perhaps
We can mend the bird’s wings
And make amends
And those of us
Who rush to the side of this baby bird
Can see
That this bird
Is 4 billion years old
A phoenix
This frail thing
Was once great and strong
And could be once again
And this bird loved us
They still do
And they gave us the world
Back when their plumage was all green and gold
The phoenix gave us food
Water
A place to stay
Companions
The plant and animal teachers
And each night
We would fall asleep
Wrapped with earth toned feathers
And this
This we threw away
With that stone
Struck it down
Left it lying bloodied on the ground
When this bird was still pure and new
Despite being old
In the moment when they were vulnerable
We threw a stone
At their home
And left them lying
All alone
But
What if we can open our arms
And just
Hold on
And let the earth
Rest
Rest their head on our chest
And we can cry
For what we’ve lost
Tears of pain and guilt
And then we can rebuild
Our relationship with the world
And each other
And we could be too late
But in that case
Let us hold this fragile world together
As the phoenix breaths
What could be the final breath
Of something beautiful
And we can hope
We can do everything we can
So that our children can ride home
Through the rain