ISSN: 1080-6059
George Held
It's not the storm itself—wind and rain lashing shore,
uprooting trees, toppling poles and dousing lights,
fl ooding cellars and roads, capsizing boats—
but the aftermath—the bright calm, the pair
of drowned cats crumpled against the picket fence,
the parlor of Izzy's shack open for inspection,
the walls fallen fl at on all sides, your own
roof fi lling the front yard, covering your car,
and your own twin daughters dazed by Nature's
petulance—that makes you reconsider
your life and weigh your possessions and the cost
of putting down stakes too near the coast
as the globe warms, and storms grow worse.
Copyright George Held. Originally published in Grounded,
Finishing Line Press, 2005; http://www.fi nishinglinepress.com.
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