It started as a shower
like the final rinse at the car wash
but kept going for four days of storm,
streets awash, flowers destroyed, schools cancelled,
busses grounded, canoes used on Main Street.
Rain a sadness
catastrophic, the loss grieved
such that crying can't suffice,
enough to demand deluge and flood,
a leaving home, family, country, culture, language
in one swoop, marooned in the unfamiliar
with no way back, no way to tend the heart.
Peggy gave us photo prompts over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads and it's open link night at dVerse Poets Pub.
oh heck...that sounds like some serious rain... we had quite some rain over here as well last week..and it was as well a bit stormy..
ReplyDeleteThis is gripping and heart breaking...perfect way to gather in this tragedy.
ReplyDelete"no way to tend the heart."
Beautiful...true.
"marooned in the unfamiliar with no way back" That really says it all, Mary. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThis brings images of both Hurricane Irene, that devastated my birth state of Vermont which is still recuperating from all the flooding, and more recently the deadly typhoon in the Philippines. Water can be terribly destructive. You have captured this well.
ReplyDeletewhew...overwhelming what can come of a little shower....we had the major flood here in 1985 that destroyed my grandparents house...def made me think of those in the typhoon though...ugh....
ReplyDeleteWonderfully written. It is amazing how quickly all can change when catastrophe hits--very well expressed. k.
ReplyDeleteGood job with the photo, Mary. I see that you guessed it was from a car wash and then went with it to a storm. I suppose even the typhoon started out as a bit of rain.
ReplyDeleteWhen rain becomes a sadness, a driving force and a departure from the norm, oh then, then the heart needs tenderness.
ReplyDeleteThe devastation that can be created by water always astounds me.
ReplyDeleteI thought I knew rain here in the Pacific Northwest. But this little poem says it all so much better than I ever could! :-)
ReplyDeleteI liked this rain can be a barrier that isolates us. I liked how you used the mundane to share emotion - and also to your quote on your page: The old that is strong does not wither
ReplyDeleteSad and thought provoking: rain gives life, but can also take it away.
ReplyDeleteYou swept in the image in the first two lines and then dreamed it all the way downstream. Anything that is a blessing can become a curse if it, like you take, takes us too far from the heart. - brendan
ReplyDeleteI just love your poetry :)
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