After the Rain

After the rain,

it all looked different.

My stress had somehow melted away;

my breathing returned back to normal.

The important thing was

to act as though nothing had happened

and try to forget it all,

which was actually not that difficult

except at night

when I was alone with my thoughts.

I’d see her face

and Greg’s face and Brian’s face and Tracy’s face

as we stood in front of her.

She was not as scared as she should have been.

Confused, her mouth frozen in a half-grin,

waiting for the punchline.

I don’t know who hit her first,

but we all hit her.

You had to, if you were there,

because you had to be part of it

if you were going to be there at all.

We hit her until she didn’t move anymore.

Then we kicked some dead leaves over her body

and walked away.

I’d forget sometimes that she was gone,

want to tell her something funny that had happened that day.

I couldn’t even remember what we were all so angry about.

It couldn’t have really been about the text message.

I mean, that’s stupid.

To do something like that

for something so small.