Amid Silence, A World Rages

Some days are spent nursing pain and migraines

Sipping melon tea and a couple of pills

There's a persistent ringing in my ears,

Maybe tinnitus, 

maybe a memory of the crashing ocean waves and the hot sands of California

Isolation has made me retrospective

History seems to be sprawled across the walls 

Like children's drawings in crayons

The flowers in my garden send their scent along with the rain

Up to my windowsill 

The news breaks the silence with racism and riots

I smell charcoal and gasoline instead

Eventually, the noise quiets down

Tension eases off my neck and shoulders

Like steam rising from my skin after a hot shower

The rain has passed,

rays of sunlight refract through my windowpane

coloring a rainbow across my cheek...

and I stand