Photo by Conner Darnell
Plum Black
Lisa Mottolo
These riots remind me of when I was running through a storm
while there were tornado warnings on the TV.
This was before smart phones.
If you didn’t have the TV or radio on, you just didn’t know,
until the sky started turning a plum black or the wind started
getting extremely heavy.
And that is what I was seeing, as I was returning home from
the local grocery store that has since been changed to a bakery.
I had never seen trees move like that in my life and I still haven’t.
No, they weren’t swaying. They weren’t dancing.
They were moving as if seeking revenge for their society of trees
being torn out of the ground.
They just needed a storm to encourage them.
Their sharp, protesting bending and bouncing scared me.
My brother mocked me as I ran faster and faster to the house.
He didn’t understand the danger.
He didn’t understand that trees always have this strength.
When I got home I counted my change from my purchase of
a bag of candy. I had dropped some coins on the flooding street.
I was too afraid to stop to pick them up.
It made me feel bad, like I had abandoned something
because I was a coward.
Like I was only willing to act when things are safe.
I still feel this way
Lisa Mottolo
These riots remind me of when I was running through a storm
while there were tornado warnings on the TV.
This was before smart phones.
If you didn’t have the TV or radio on, you just didn’t know,
until the sky started turning a plum black or the wind started
getting extremely heavy.
And that is what I was seeing, as I was returning home from
the local grocery store that has since been changed to a bakery.
I had never seen trees move like that in my life and I still haven’t.
No, they weren’t swaying. They weren’t dancing.
They were moving as if seeking revenge for their society of trees
being torn out of the ground.
They just needed a storm to encourage them.
Their sharp, protesting bending and bouncing scared me.
My brother mocked me as I ran faster and faster to the house.
He didn’t understand the danger.
He didn’t understand that trees always have this strength.
When I got home I counted my change from my purchase of
a bag of candy. I had dropped some coins on the flooding street.
I was too afraid to stop to pick them up.
It made me feel bad, like I had abandoned something
because I was a coward.
Like I was only willing to act when things are safe.
I still feel this way