At 4 am,

When it’s too late to go back to sleep,

And it’s too early to start the day,

Remember the things you were told

Remember that your mother

Called you pumpkin and peach

With a sweetness that stuck like cavities

Making homes in the cracks and tight spaces

Remember that the rain will come.

Hard.

And that not even a week of phenomena

Can’t hold you back from running through it.

Keep running through it.

Remember that you are a warrior

And a believer,

And a peacemaker.

That your hands paint the sky

That we walk under

With merely a wave.

And remember

If this place gets too crowded

For your thoughts to outstretch

Or your feet to run free,

Then go.

Sometimes it may take a sunset

On a parking garage

Looping endlessly upward

As the cold wind blows

The music that’s too loud around the car

And into your lap.

And sometimes it takes a winter beach

Shivering from January wind,

Figuring out what to do next,

When you’re still not tired of running.

Continue to search

And discover

And run.

Though you may drift far from where you came,

Go as far as you may need,

As long as you remember to come back home.