Text
When a hypnagogic moment
Is shattered by a flash of lightning,
An intruder:
Thunder so close on its heels
That one questions which came first;
The house
Groaning under the weight of its roar;
The unwelcome burst
Of adrenaline;
A second strike,
And the plasma-colored after-image
Of the bedroom,
Blades of the ceiling fan
Frozen in time,
Sharp shadows etched across the walls;
The pattering crescendo of tiny feet
And muffled sobs;
The bleating alarms at every hour,
Riding on whirlwinds
Over the crest of rivers;
This hiss of rain,
Long and loud and deep;
The street lights
Reflecting strangely
Where reflections should not be;
A tide
Where tides should not be;
The buzz of rotors
Doppler past like bees;
Powerless and power-less,
The white noise of the world,
Only heard, because absent;
Waiting for the birds
To return,
To sing away the silence;
The sense of peace that,
Having left like a bullet,
Returns like a sunset.
Is shattered by a flash of lightning,
An intruder:
Thunder so close on its heels
That one questions which came first;
The house
Groaning under the weight of its roar;
The unwelcome burst
Of adrenaline;
A second strike,
And the plasma-colored after-image
Of the bedroom,
Blades of the ceiling fan
Frozen in time,
Sharp shadows etched across the walls;
The pattering crescendo of tiny feet
And muffled sobs;
The bleating alarms at every hour,
Riding on whirlwinds
Over the crest of rivers;
This hiss of rain,
Long and loud and deep;
The street lights
Reflecting strangely
Where reflections should not be;
A tide
Where tides should not be;
The buzz of rotors
Doppler past like bees;
Powerless and power-less,
The white noise of the world,
Only heard, because absent;
Waiting for the birds
To return,
To sing away the silence;
The sense of peace that,
Having left like a bullet,
Returns like a sunset.
Creator
Jon Vandermeulen
Title
Water Hazard
Description
Harvey was a named storm for only a week, but that name has stayed on our lips since.
Type
poems
Language
en
Rights
This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Source
This item was contributed via the Harvey Memories Project "Contribute an Item" form.
Date Created
2018-02-01
Date Submitted
2018-08-27
Date Available
2018-08-27
Spatial Coverage
+29.922716-095.678000/
Temporal Coverage
start=2017-08-26; end=2017-08-30; scheme=ISO 8601;