I used to think the safest place

Was somewhere far away from humans

Breathing with the trees

Sitting in their branches

 

The sky is not a burden

I must carry

 

On cold nights

I’d enter the lake

Loosing my breath

Leaving my body

Floating away

Among the stars

 

I’d wonder how the world

Can stand so still

And spin so fast

And how it can withstand

All the pain

No apology is big enough

 

I used to watch the sun

Collapse onto the horizon

Like butter melting onto earth

And I’d think about

Endings

The way they’re ignored

 

I used to sing to snails

Coaxing them from their shells

And into a hand

Of the species that killed the oceans

 

But as I grow up

It becomes harder to be alone

To find quiet in the loudness

And humans

They only cause more pain

 

I learn new ways of forgiving

I learn how many tears will fall

Before sleep arrives

And where the rashes will form

Around my eyes

 

The silence after rain

How quickly the sky pulls itself together

 

I used to think the safest place

Was somewhere far away from humans

But now, I don’t know

I cannot be safe

From my own human thoughts

My own human love

My own human flaws

The damage they cause

 

I cannot escape myself

Among the trees

 

I used to want to save the world

What if I can’t

What if I can’t

 

But maybe I can

Maybe I can save us both