Anger

Anger swells inside me

like the smoke billowing from a cigarette

it rises and folds back within itself greater

it spreads to cover me.

The words that normally would be used

to describe the way I feel now fail me.

I grasp at the air

a child mid-nightmare

I reach and grab at the nothing I have to hold on to.

Red flushes my face.

My chest is heavy with the weight of another’s cowardice

the man is a child

incapable of comprehending that one’s actions are not just their own.

His wake reveals a life

not destroyed, for hers will go on

but bruised, blued with the impact of selfishness.

She will bend and not break

for she is strong, resilient

she is not alone.

But he is weak, small

he is unfortunate

for now he will lose what she could have been for him.

My breath slows.

The heat in my head subsides.

The storm is breaking and I see the sun

still dappled but breaking on the horizon

the sun will come.

Her days will be bright, they will be free

He will remain in the shadow of the storm as she moves on.

Her future is a meadow after a cleansing rain

still muddy with the memory of the torrent passed

but bathing in sunlight with flowers blooming

in the promise of tomorrow.