Tornadoes

I feel like I’ve always had a tornado inside of me
You have it inside of you
Just sometimes it doesn’t move
I sort of bloom late, but I know it’s still there
It still twitches
I’m still flinching
I’m hiding in the basement
Trying to keep my head down
Trying not to get shocked
Trying to keep the windows boarded up
Trying to find the words that need a home too
And that home might be you
While that storm stays eating at the front door of my mind
Out here stranded between home and where I live
Waiting for the sun to peek in like a killer
Until I can know the coast is clearer
If it comes from the sky and it’s bad:
It must be God
It must be mad
Like it changed its mind
Said never mind
So I told myself that if I quit moving I died
So I started it spinning and spinning around
But you were alive on that day in this town in this state
And you were younger and not as sure as you are now
But you were alive in every way
But we couldn’t say that we’d ever find it again
So I put a mark on my heart for myself and all my friends
So we can look at it again
Holding up your families
Holding up houses
Holding down jobs, and tears
I hope you never again have to use people
And each other like washers (tightening the screws)
But you were there for each other
Didn’t leave. Didn’t give up
And there’s a kind of unfortunate peace
You have that no one can take away
And the pictures prove that you used to live so take more
And even if you don’t know what love is try and be all of it
And build an army
An army of peace
We are homeless in our houses
There are no guarantees
Even in our houses we are homeless
There are no guarantees