Sunday, August 29, 2021

STORM NUMBER 9: IDA, 2021

by Rose M. Smith


Sun., Aug. 29: Hurricane Ida is seen in this image taken aboard the International Space Station. The image was shared on European Space Agency astronaut and Expedition 65 crew member Thomas Pesquet's Twitter account, as the storm churned in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of its landfall. ESA/NASA


Mother, they say you are the hurricane

bearing down on our Gulf Coast this weekend


whirling      mad      anomaly full of rain and wind

scream a long assault against any who list


attendant fury tearing down light post    tree    wall

drowning masses who fail to heed your warning


I became a cistern full of tears    wretched 

war torn      homeless      arms outstretched


when I heard them call you Ida

as though    so quiet in your living


you found in death freedom to be whirlwind

demand your choices known



Rose M. Smith lives in Central Ohio near a short stretch of woods.  Her work has appeared in Blood and Thunder, Origins Journal, Passager, The Examined Life, Snapdragon, and other journals and anthologies. She is author of Unearthing Ida (Glass Lyre Press, 2019) which won the 2018 Lyrebird Prize. She is an Editor with Pudding Magazine, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and a Cave Canem fellow.