On the Other Side of the Cloud

the bud in half bloom

outwaits the cloud

                         Mark Nepo

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some days

there is a cloud around my heart

a deep ache

a dullness

I think of children dead

of lives shattered

by acts of hate

by people damaged by 

ideologies that nurture

distain

and anger

I see the pictures on the news

read the comments on articles

listen to

the fear soaked

rants of people who trust only in guns

I think of those who have fed that fear

those who lie

or manipulate facts

to perpetuate a culture

where bright young lives are cut short

and women are oppressed

and young girls are molested and victimized

and people

in despair die

and the cloud descends

and yet, if I give into that heaviness

if I let the cloud

make me believe that I there is no light

no love

no hope

then I become

like those fearful, hateful, power hungry ones

who seem

at times

to have won the day

on the other side of the cloud

the sun shines fiercely

on the other side of hate is love

on the other side of fear, compassion

on the other side of death is life

"no cloud lasts forever

the earth knows this well, and all that grows from it

so does the heart

and everything that grows from it" (Nepo)