Survival Instinct
When the wild
Raging of the storm
Threatens to topple your tiny shack
That little hovel you built, where you taught yourself
To dig in, wait it out, and
bear it
When the scrap metal walls,
Patches of aluminum tied together with twine,
Begin their clang-clanging
Sounding the alarm
Marking the approach of this onslaught
Trembling
Rebelling against that which would consume you
And the day comes when it all caves in
And the only thing you know to do is
To brace yourself
To huddle and contract
To allow the storm it’s fury,
Claiming it’s space over you
Whipping your spine
Taking away every part of yourself that is recognizable
As you cling to whatever doesn’t
Slip through the cracks of your fists
I want you to stand
Even as your fear demands that you stay crouched in place
Empty your hands, let the wind take you
And meet yourself wherever you land
Listen as the hurricane speaks
In the only way it knows how
Listen, with love, to the thoughts that frighten you most,
With a knowing that
In this gracious space between
Thoughts and action, lives
Choice
See the storm, this natural and Necessary shadow
Of your brightness, as more than just some
Thing to be
Endured,
Tolerated with disdain and contempt.
Close the divide between you,
The sacred distance that you so carefully cultivated, and
Offer yourself
Give more than a safe space
Unlock your arms, reveal the path to the
Parts that you’ve hoarded, your desperate attempt to keep them intact,
Let the storm inside of you
And embrace your reckoning
Let the storm thrash within you
Pelting and shredding your most beloved structures
into dust
Offer all of yourself, keeping nothing hidden
Listen
Embrace this despair
And once the illusion has truly gone, and you can no
longer distinguish a separation,
If ever there was any,
You can close your arms again
And lock the storm there
With its wreckage of hail and ruin,
And embrace, yes
Embrace
Hold the storm.
