Before the Flood
- by Linn Barnes
Before the Flood
-Linn Barnes
The rain is collapsing the sky,
the river in bellowing below us,
the woods are sagging, clumped over
exhausted dancers, with no respite,
soaking a torrent down the ridge.
Small creatures are driven from the safety
of their nests by the hostile assault
to a watery death while grasping for roots
and snapping branches in a final schuss to oblivion.
All this, while far out at sea lurks a great
fear, death and destruction to the many
in the direct path of the coming hurricane.
And, it is certain we will get our share,
we will not be spared the wind and the rain.
We may even get a mirror of a tidal surge
when all the rivers will flood their banks and
eat into the wooded borderland, creeping up
the draws and climbing the hills where we will sit it out;
these days, now darkening, waiting for the wind to rise…