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Two Storms by Katherine Robinson

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The stench of grief, loss and shock are everywhere 
permeating the area with smells of red tide and salt water
that had crept into places that were never meant to know water in that way. 

Private areas of people’s lives
brutally exposed on their front lawns 
furniture strewn about, floorboards, kitchen cabinets, 
Water logged stuffed animals 
A piano that still had songs left in it

You can see where the water line came up
a line that was never meant to be formed
on such a beautiful white linen chair

My neighbor said the water came to their front door
and then to the back
like an unwanted intruder just as the sun had set 
and darkness was creeping in

they ran around trying to save anything they could 
but it was too late
Water pushed through the walls
dogs on the couch, pure panic

time ran out, we never thought it could happen to us
we never thought it could happen to us 

The trees speak of a terrible wind
with gusts of up to 100mph
Uprooted and laying on their sides
Just like many of us are feeling

The trees weren’t prepared for this
neither were the people

We had dodged several bullets in the past 
and thought the shield, the protection would continue
“Shields up” is a common term on weatherboards for Tampa Bay
When there is a threat of a hurricane

But the shield disappeared leaving us vulnerable
And two storms hit
one that brought surge, the other brought wind

I drove home to check on everything two days after the second storm
my area was hit hard, it looked like a war zone
driving in and around streets that were so familiar to me,
Power lines and trees down, blocking traffic

These streets had memories of my childhood woven through them
They had once felt like paradise
but now looked like they had been overtaken by some beast with no boundaries

The stressed looks on people’s faces as they dealt with the mess
on their property
the looks that said, I never thought this would be me.
I never thought this would be me.
The words that I heard continuously repeating on a loop,
I lost everything, I lost everything, I lost everything.

Our houses and our emotional bodies were flooded, full to capacity, overflowing.
We needed to wait for the water to recede
In our homes, our neighborhoods and our hearts
We needed time to heal

Two storms in two weeks
what a mess, what darkness, such deep levels of loss and despair
but isn’t there some beauty to it all as well, a divine order?
some beauty and grace in this level of loss and destruction
the yin and yang, the darkness is always close beside the light
We can’t have one without the other
for we enter the storm as one person and come out of the storm as another
We have been forever changed, altered

Could this be an invitation?
To feel it all and let the ravages of an inflamed mother earth
Teach us about the vulnerabilities and depths of the human spirit,
The true bond of community

For if we allow ourselves to truly feel it all during the darkest days,
The joys on the other side are that much sweeter.
And we remember how precious it is to just breathe a breath,
see ourselves in each other
And open our hearts to the fragility of the human experience.

We never thought it could happen to us. 

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