Truest Courage

As the sun will set, so thunder crashes,
a faultless force as big as it is brief.
Lighting lights fuel, leaving only ashes.
Scars on trees and children's minds, no green on the leaf.

Waves worry not over their crashing place, 
carefree no matter what may break beneath.
Countless casualties of wind, that wispy ace,
shameless sword of breath returns to its sheath.

The storm cares not how much it hurts me.
Shall I cry for help? Second tempest
dwarfs the first, over internal sea.
No cry to God. I'll try my best.

Holding fast, now I ask, did I overcome?
Shepherd stands, commands in love, the Eternal One.

I wrote this poem for my grandmother Carolyn, and sent it to her along with a letter in May of 2026. She passed in August, and in October I read both the letter and poem at her funeral in her childhood home of Susses County, New Jersey.