It was in the third grade that my mother tucked a note
into my lunchbox that read “there is no sun out today,
so let the sun shine in your heart”-
big, hefty words for the third grade mind to stew over,
but ones that adhered and clung to my
way of thinking like a persistent weed-
I never forgot those words,
and they have served me well as a warm
reminder tucked into my soul just as that
note was tucked into my old plastic lunch box on that rainy
day, eons ago-
the sun is still there, though oftentimes it can’t be seen
through the clouds on days like today…
you can peer through the clouds and believe,
or you can rest easy in the faith that the sun has
always been, and will forever beat earnestly
within you as long as you have the courage to
take another breath*