i

I don't feel like I have a Harvey story.

I live in a city that was partially underwater for a week

And while it was still pouring rain on Monday,

I was already back at work because I wasn't rained in.

I was fine.

To all my friends and family who lived out of town,

Who asked me if I was safe

Who said they were praying for me

I felt like saying

Thanks for the thought

But I am not the one you should be praying for

I don't need it

(But that's like tempting God)

 

ii

I don't know what it's like to really wake up

And have your whole world be different,

But I have a friend who is coming home from Brazil in six weeks

And all the floors and half the walls in his home

Have been ripped out and are being redone.

They're hoping his room will be painted by the time he gets back.

I gutted someone's home as they sat,

Unable to do more than watch 

As their whole life was thrown out on the sidewalk

And I am not as fragile as I once was

But after fishing through a room that still had water in it,

Searching for some grandchild's toys that could be saved,

I had to step outside

Because that almost broke me

And it wasn't even my story.

 

iii

I go to college next year

And I'm not even applying to schools near Houston

So I know wherever I end up,

When people ask me where I'm from 

They will also always ask what it was like

Going through a once in a lifetime storm

And all I will say

Is that it was like it wasn't even happening

That the only stories I can tell are the parts of other's that I had a cameo in 

All I will be able to say

Is that Nature had a show and used the city of Houston as the cast, crew, and set

And that it was like I was only in the audience.