Natural Disasters
Featured in triptych: a vision in 3 parts,
the 37th edition of The Riverbend Review.
Edited by Amy Liu.
Featured in triptych: a vision in 3 parts,
the 37th edition of The Riverbend Review.
Edited by Amy Liu.
year-round, it's always here
doing what humans can't,
the unthinkable.
it strikes fear
of the unknown,
gives peace
of more to discover,
anger that the unknown
is not just a saying.
you never know its (or our) next move
besides the fact that
we want to be ready for it all,
soldiers clad in armor for battle.
but even they aren’t ready,
our battle plans made one-night stands.
the dew rustling, beautiful, simplistic
an overload?
no.
that's not what we wanted.
the breeze, soothing to the skin
an overload?
now, we’re as light as paper.
we dance and stomp to the beat on the ground
an overload?
the screams consume ears,
children’s tears like a flooding river,
and this time we can’t dry them,
so we hold out hope.
we join hands,
pray for comfort and safety.
then it ends.
it’s all over.
what was an instant, an hour,
an hour, a day.
black clouds unfurl into
a barren gray sky,
a sliver of rainbow curling at the horizon.
no one likes uncertainty like this
but we can’t live without it.