The Looking
I look at his face
I really look
I scan his features
His eyes
His cheeks
His lips
Slowly my eyes separate them
Until he is a stranger
A collection of features I do not recognize
Just a man
Just another man
For a moment I wonder
Who is this man?
Does this man love me?
Does this man see me?
He feels the weight of my stare
And his eyes meet mine
A moment passes
No, a breath
And this stranger is him again
The butterflies of the unknown
Replaced by the butterflies of recognition
The thrill of uncertainty
Replaced by the thrill of security
The romance of dreams made
Replaced by the romance of dreams fulfilled
Once again he is mine
And I am his
Forever
Until the next time I look at his face
Until the next time I really look
A Disaster
April would never forget that sound; the sound of a thousand freight trains crashing around her. She clenched her eyes shut even more as she held tight to pipes under the sink. She could feel her heart beating fast against her chest as she held on for dear life.
It had all happened so fast. The wind picked up. A siren rang out. Jonah had pulled her into the bathroom and underneath the sink, wrapping himself around her. Then the tornado ripped through their home, almost lifting the entire roof off the house.
It wasn't the house that she was most worried about though; it was the barn. Jonah didn't know this but April had recently taken all of their money out of the bank and stored it in a small safe in the barn. She hid it under a dilapidated tractor. They had been planning to run away together to start fresh after being told they were getting kicked out from her Uncle's house. That money was all they had left and it was right in the path of a deadly twister.
Suddenly the winds stopped and everything became quiet. The tornado had moved along, taking half of the house with it. April and Jonah got up and made their way through what once was a wall into the living room. The house was a disaster, just like their lives had become in the last few weeks.
When Jonas lost his job, April thought she could pick up extra hours at the diner to pay off the rent. Surely her Uncle wouldn't kick her out, right? Wrong. The scumbag noticed she was one day past due and down came the gavel. She was given two weeks to pack up and move out.
The front door was hanging open. Taking a deep breath and nodding at each other for reassurance, the couple walked out the door. Outside was chaos. Jonah's eyes betrayed the terror and worry he felt looking at the shambles that had been normal suburban homes just ten minutes before. Almost every building on the street was torn away.
April, however, was not worried. She looked toward the the right to see red barn and gasped in surprise. It was still standing and completely in one piece. She took off towards it and entered the structure, stepping around the fallen rusted tools.
Diving under the tractor, April dug out the safe. She put in the three-digit code, Jonah's birthday, and it popped open. Inside were nicely stacked piles of bills. She signed heavily.
"What are you doing?" Jonas asked from the barn doorway, "It's not safe in here, come on."
"Baby," she responded, slowing picking up the small safe, "Everything is going to be alright."
Growing Up:
You grew out of some things.
You grew into your chair.
You grew out of silly string
and pig tails in your hair.
You grew into importance
and out of child's games.
You grew out of Ellie
and into Ms. Redmayne.
You grew out of your skin.
It shed off everywhere like those
hand-me-downs in grade school
that your mother made you wear.
Why do Men go to war
In the wet of morning dew
they march on, the time is due
most would wander into great glum
others will bring back a hollow form
some, luck will bear them out
others the devil will never let them out
their dust laden boots 'll ware out
they'll cry to twilight hues, restless
the question why Men go to war will stand
in idleness till all mortal chapters come to end
