Current status: hunkering down in Orlando awaiting the storm
Apartment status, Miami: unknown
Creative status: writing
Hurricane Preparation: A Poem
Acquire Supplies
- Bottled water
- Toilet paper
- Flashlight (multiple)
- Batteries
- More bottled water
- Canned food, but do not forget
by any means
a can opener - Board/Bored Games
- Selfishness
- Bravado
- A little feeling of fear
- A desire to face the wind with a cape made out of a bedsheet
- First Aid Kit
Get to higher ground
the ground
you were supposed to take
that one time you fought with your father
about your life goals
that didn’t quite fit
within the confines
of his expectations.
Constantly in doubt
of your motivations
for more money,
a bigger apartment,
and loftier general aspirations.
Can you blame him?
What have you done with your life?
What have you prioritized?
Emotional happiness over financial gain?
Feeling less stressed, more sane
Finding self over finding something resembling settled
the same thing you did yesterday?
What have you prioritized?
If asked to evacuate, evacuate
You’re stubborn, that’s a given—
a life you currently live in
is all, search for bigger and better
and while the ground gets exponentially wetter
you debate the worth of your home, your jewelry, your pride
decide you’ll be fine if you stay inside,
then only when you see the sheep leave their pens in search of safe farmland,
do you follow
your insides are hollow, making space for things that might be emotions
or instead, oceans of rain
that will fill up like downtown streets, drowning any chance you had
of feeling anything.
Don’t tape up your windows
Shattered glass bullets
that ping through the air
or sharp daggers, different shapes
like snowflakes,
slicing through your brown pull-out couch
like a birthday cake.
Remove large items from outside
like your faults,
your ego,
the loveseat outside,
the fake potted plant
the pile of cigarettes on the ashtray,
the chair with the arm rest
where you held my hand
and the world stopped for minutes.
I can hear you laughing through the wind,
jocund at 100 miles per hour
ha
ha
ha
around and around,
and I can almost see you laughing
from here
your smile a bright beacon through the cloud dark,
the rain dark,
the power-went-out dark,
the inner-heart dark,
the lonely dark,
the dark beneath flood waters.
When it all goes dark, we disappear
except for you.
Close all interior doors
to disperse the pressure
throughout your heart.
Be wary of tornadoes
You can judge a child based on her parents,
but this doesn’t mean
she will be like them,
the warning message,
the alerts,
all lead to eventual silence.
Have you met my Mother [Nature]?