In August, a tornado swept through town
Disappearing before daybreak and when people woke up
They looked out their window
And realization hit as the dawn appeared
We sat in silence in the calm of the storm
Then the wind picked up again
And the rain started pelting us
And thunder boomed and lightning struck
We sat together on a field waiting it out
Not knowing what to do but being together was all we could think of
Being together is all that we knew
And others talked to us
Helping us clean up
But I couldn’t see any debris
The memory of yesterday still sat in my mind
The bliss of a crazy happiness I couldn’t let go
I couldn’t see the damage of the tornado
I refused to see the storm around me
But I sat with them
Because being with them is all that I knew
While they cleaned up, I sat in silence
They needed me there and I couldn’t say no

The storm lasted three days
And when the sun finally appeared all mentions of the tornado stopped
A reference to the storm here and there is all we got
But the storm
Didn’t last three days for me
A rain cloud traveled from their heads to mine
And I was blinded by how sudden the rain came
I couldn’t see around me
I didn't know if the rain was falling elsewhere
It was acid upon my skin
And I needed to talk
To make others see the storm
To ask them if they too felt the rain
I needed to sit with others
Because being with others is all that I knew
But the others wouldn't talk
This is isolation of the worst degree

My storm lasted two months
Two months of blog posts and letters that could not be sent
Two months of slowly cleaning up
Putting the pieces back together
Figuring out where they fit
And discovering the pieces never had a place before
I talked to others when the pieces were in order
Because talking to others is all that I knew
They let me took but couldn’t understand

I wanted to remember the tornado
To talk about the storm and what it all caused
I wanted to know, to understand, to work it through
But the topic was too taboo
And the clean up was mine alone
And the tornado wasn’t really a tornado
It was a death
The death of a classmate
And there wasn’t really a storm
Only reactions and events