You Better Be Lightning (Button Poetry)

by Andrea Gibson

I know most people try hard to do good and find out too late they should have tried softer.

Burning to be better is my favorite quality on anyone, and you are on fire

I love you because we have both showed up to kindness tryouts with notes from the school nurse that said we were too hurt to participate.

Regret is a time machine to the past. Worry is a time machine to the future. Gratitude is a time machine to the present.

NO SUCH THING AS THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER Silence rides shotgun wherever hate goes.

If you are going to be anything in the world tonight, you better be lightning. You better find something in you honest enough to strike them.

if your own story is one you aren’t sure you can survive, remove whatever sharpness you can from another person’s life.

You are my blood now. Which is another word for family— which is the least tiny gift my life has known.

In any moment, on any given day, I can measure my wellness by this question: Is my attention on loving, or is my attention on who isn’t loving me?