A Dinosaur on Main Street

the storm was one of the worst I’ve seen
not even a storm
but a tornado

and I’m not talking about Tinsley

I mean a storm with rain and thunder and
lightening and wind and wind and wind

and it ripped up our town
in just a few minutes

but this is a town that has been ripped up before
quickly, unexpectedly

and it’s a town that walks outside
after the chaos, surveys the damage, and asks
“how can I help?”

neighbors checking on neighbors
offering food
offering showers
offering hands and feet and labor
offering kindness
especially to the neighbors they don’t know

why just yesterday morning
there was a dinosaur on Main Street
handing out bottled water and humor

because the town needed both

when Tinsley died
the world collapsed on top of me
but this town didn’t

this town
that knows how fragile and precious life is
looked me squarely in the eyes
and said, “we see you.”

however we ended up here,
I’m so grateful.

with a child buried down the road
and faces around me fully alive
with all the pain and love this planet has to offer
I pray we never have to leave

the downside, of course, is that
the faces in the world beyond our little town
grow uglier and uglier

to which this town might respond,
“well why don’t you go share
a little love and kindness with them?”