by M. N. O'Brien
In an interview Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the agency is preparing for severe weather events of similar magnitude. “This is going to be our new normal, and the effects that we’re seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation,” she said. —The Washington Post, December 13, 2021
Echoes of memories: the crunching gravel
under departing tire trucks drowned out
by a howling freight train. Gnashing
through the house, using its churning debris,
corpses of livelihoods to kill more. Leaving
only the warm December stones behind.
In the distance, coal is exhumed
with Kentucky's unbridled spirit.
M. N. O'Brien received his B.A. from Roanoke College, where his work was published in On Concept's Edge and received the Charles C. Wise Poetry Award. His work has appeared in SOFTBLOW, Right Hand Pointing, and The Ekphrasis Review. He currently lives in Christiansburg, Virginia, taking seasonal jobs that do not interfere with writing poetry. He despises writing about himself in the third person.