The Storm

We aren’t about to address the storm
if to speak will change our voices.

We’ll watch it tear our sacred groves
into splinters.

We’ll stand in front of it
as it lifts us into the rubble.

We’ll whisper as we cower
under the eaves hoping it will pass.

But to offer a word against it,
spell out our power and force it back?

No.  Not that.
It’s not a good time.  It’s not

what we were made for.  We were built
to watch it kill us

and then blame someone
for not speaking.  We were made

to be silent and let the storm
carry our voices away.