Aftermath

 

May 18th Tornado 

In the basement of a 120 year old building

Everyone watches the red cloud flow over us on thier phones

Bedding and water sit on a smooth floor

and leans against brick with rounded edges

fingerprints from the brick maker still pressed in the clay 

Water seeps down from the cracks in the mount of the egress window

and cleans out dust that had settled there in 1900. 

It reeks of chlorine. 

The power lines snap and the whole town went dark

So many trees break apart, that the roads became rainforests

Fractured sidewalks became pools

The tornado stripped them of bark and hurled them to the ground

All air outside smells like cedar and pine

like a candle besides the bath 

Shreds of white pulp look as fresh as sliced fruit

It's the raw life essence of a dying tree 

A chainsaw blade gurgles  

We pull from the road what we can before the rains drown the brick streets again

and then we camp in the dark lit by battery lamps.

Thank You.