Calm Before the Storm
By: Emma Zwickel
In the shadows of the night,
I’ve watched you seduce the moon
like a siren hell-bent on scraping

together enough power to match
the dawn’s divinity,
I’ve seen you kneel before the sun
when you would’ve rather been basking
in its luminance and
I am like the calm before the storm,
taking you all in breath by breath until
I can hardly breathe anymore.
Once I asked you if it hurt,
having to carry sacrifice on your back,
the weight of my impending future
resting stout and square on your shoulders,
and you told me that hurt is a woman’s backbone,
she travels through life, never seizing the upper hand
but she rises for the sake of her children,
for the sake of the society that looks down
at her from its grounded pedestal,
for the sake of her smile that never dulls
even in the face of adversity because hurt
embodies this world like a blouse two sizes
too small to fit its entirety, but someday
with poise and promise and just a bit of petulance,
the future will be ours.