This is a watercolor and poem about rewriting old stories.
The Artwork: Miracle Rain
The Poem: Letter to Teenage You Regarding The Worst Greatest Moment of Your Life
If you’re tired,
I have a new story for you.
This time,
nothing has changed,
except for every cell
in your body.
This time,
instead of creatures crouched on shoulders,
there’s a two-piece band
in your heart
and they’re playing
the soundtrack to
the greatest moment
of your life:
Look at you
shining & fearless
six feet tall in your heart,
believing you could be the sun.
(You’re even wearing yellow,
even though it’s not your color
and you know it.
I love that about you,
unearned defiance & still
unashamed).
Everyone wants the beautiful day,
the predictable self-assured rays of the brightest star
but you’re all sideways wind and water,
loud as fuck against the window.
And I don’t know if the rain
feels fear as it free falls through space,
I don’t know if it forgets
the river it came from
I don’t know why some drops
become fog in the trees,
never reaching the ground.
But I want to bottle your miracle rain
each drop impossibly overflowing
with the most impeccably imperfect courage
I’ve seen to date.
Throw yourself at the window!
I will preserve you in glass,
I will raise my hand in a toast
to your bravery continually unfolding.
Now the band is playing louder,
you can feel it in your chest,
and it’s all drums, baby,
and it’s all for you.