I am no longer brave, I flinch at the storm.
I have no defense, I have lost too much.
My sense of resilience has been chipped away
Until all that is left is a knot in my stomach
And a sincere wish that we will be lucky this time.
I don’t care if trees come down, if hail rips
The last leaf from the last branch, if a tornado
Leaves a swath a mile wide. I only care that no one
Is hurt, that homes and lives are not destroyed.
Children are engaged by the bending limbs,
The thousand swirling leaves, the low clouds
Racing overhead—while I worry, rightly so,
Of catastrophe; rightly so, because I have lived it,
Have seen it, have faced the costs.
Rightly so, I have every reason to be scared.
Hanque O . . .
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/before-the-storm-summer/
