This is a guest post from Karen Locke, a geo-poem inspired by Hurricane Sandy that I adore. I’m grateful she let me publish it here.
Storm: Two Voices
by Karen Locke
Sand beguiling,
curious roughness on our feet;
soft waves, the ocean plays against the sand.
We also play! We run, we laugh,
we build sandcastles that the gentle waves wash down.
The very best of places to be
is on the sand.
But skies grow dark,
a bit of rain, a bit of wind, ever more intense,
gentle waves are getting just a bit…
not really gentle anymore
and there’s a knock on the door; the message is
evacuate.Oho! But the sand laughs,
I will dance!
I will wash to sea and wash to shore
and bounce and shift without a pattern.
Water is my partner in the dance;
oh joy to dance!
I am free;
free from human will for once, free to dance,
to come ashore, or
forget the shore and seek the greater sea.
The things you planted on me, humans
wood and concrete holding me,
I am now free from them and I can dance!
We wait.
The storm has passed, the days have passed,
and now we can go back
to our house, to our sand, our sandcastles on the shore.
But…
Sandy beach at Lincoln City, Oregon. Image courtesy Dana Hunter.
4 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
rq
December 4, 2012 at 4:41 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
*thumbs up*
heliconia
December 4, 2012 at 5:05 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
*finger snaps*
(I may have chosen to interpret this in a Lovecraftian frame, though it’s a good one outside of the mythos, too.)
rq
December 4, 2012 at 7:18 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Ha, that works well! :D
F [disappearing]
December 4, 2012 at 12:36 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Free, indeed.