Waiting for the Storm

You walk,
and the waves pummel the sand,
and the birds have fled to safer ground
as you wait for the coming storm.

You too will find safe haven, but not quite yet.
You will watch the clouds gather,
feel the wind rise, tear at your clothes,
feel the first drops of rain cut your face like glass.

You will feel your enemy.
You will know the storm
in all its intimacy and power.
and when it comes you will know it like a lover,
waiting for the strange climax

come and gone in a minute,
overpowering and then,
fading into morning, when you will see
what the storm has left,
and what it has taken.

About this poem

With Hurricane Matthew moving up the coast, millions of us are preparing for the storm, which had me thinking of all the storms in our life, and how we can see them coming sometimes, and how we choose to prepare and wait, whether we flee or hunker down and wait it out.

And the damages. Always the damages.

Friends in the south, my prayers are with you. Those facing other kinds of storms in your life, my prayers are with you also.

Tom