And the rocking chair soothed the aching child of 5’2

This was in a time when that curtain of chaos drew around me like

A storm in florida hurricane season

The chaos was inside, like a merry go round that turns while the world stays put

I wish my world stayed put

You all had footholds that do not slip – within –

You all had paths straight and free from inner vertigo

You all know nothing of this

The more chaos inside, the more the ordinary would quake

Until mundane crumbled

A job melted down a mountain, the sludge of lost stability

Locked doors and banging fists

You know nothing of this

I’m clutching the earth

I’m rooting these toes

Stand tall in a storm

Against benevolent foes

I couldn’t cut the memories into construction paper

They’re not clear enough.

I couldn’t cut them out of my history

They still steer too much.

I find years in bunches that pacify

Some soul aloe

Some antivenom

Allowing me to be

Just be

This rocking chair of night and day

This see saw goes up goes down

The equilibrium they measure

Pinning down

Anchoring normal

You prizers of gravity

I’m rooting myself in your gravel

I’m nurturing my scars into the toughest bark

And my boughs will sway your canons of dismissal

From this planet I will rise

A wooden sanctuary

Rock inside and sap of sadness

You bang against these walls

You dug this mote

The gate is up and armed with armor.

I’ll build a fortress to the moon

Until the current of the ocean decides to lick my face

The smallest ripple of a wave will laugh at me

And touch eternal concrete.