Storm of the Century

Distant thunder rolls across bowing plains
suppressed by Mother Nature
as she claims her throne.

The rocker chills my back tonight
as I watch fury unfold in the distance.
How quickly it raises the hair
on the back of your neck.

Hues of violet and ice blue
deliver the jagged banks
of raging streams,
splitting this midnight sky
that delivered only stars
moments earlier.

Mother ushers me
to the front row
of midnight’s stage.

Still I sit in that cool rocker
lost in the play
unfolding before me.

The lion roars
in the mothers den.

Alas,
the show begins on my stage
in the confines of my own fields.
The grass humbled
bows in defeat.

As the chorus of leaves
sing their haunting warning above me,
taunting thoughts beckon me,

“Leave in peace and without fear.
Remain and find this play unfold
before eyes and ears unbelieving.”

Tornado watch plays
upon the television screen ticker.

I can read it through the pane
tendering shelter from the rage
of a mother scorned.

While the mother of my children
prepares the tiny room
in the center of our very lives.

Always preparing for the worst,
she knows the resolve
of a mother well.

She knows not to taunt,
nor to deliver herself.

I, on the other hand,
find I am bound
by a lack of understanding;
never quite comprehending
the will of a woman,
much less a mother.

Like so many fools, I stay
rocking, waiting,
delivering myself to the storm
While demanding my children
to stay safely inside.

Limbs,
ripped from their lofty homes
only allude to her fury
as the fire streaks above me.

I have never seen such rain.
My hypocrisy is short lived tonight.

For me this show is over,
at least from refuge of a soaked rocker
abruptly blown over.

Refuge offers its haunting show
from the false security of a window-pane.

Tornados in Freestone, Hill, and Ellis,
rip away the landscape
choking in the wind.

The windows swell,
coming to life,
Heaving back and forth,
Breathing life into fear.

Clattering upon the roof!
This show ceases to amuse me
as lightning flash reveals...

baseball-size hai!l
slamming into the sidewalk
that welcomes me home.
How is it missing my lamp-post?

This chorus shortened
by another deluge of rain.

Time to go to sleep.
Up in three hours.
Another storm awaits me
amidst the raging sea of progress.

…If those roads
…If my drive
…If my home
allows safe passage.

The sun perches among
The battered oaks
And lamenting birds.

News flashes record
The minutes beyond
The false security
Of brick façade.

Ten inches of rain.
Three people dead.
Yet, another night
in the Texas skies.

Copyright, Kevin V. Reese, 2004

wow, what a story. really enjoyable. uniquely delightful.

most enjoyable excperiance to read.

misty..