Smothers and scatters the furred and the feathered

An air raid siren of insurgent air

announces oncoming chaos

Mother Nature in bone-white B-52

swoops in to carpet bomb

Shelters fill with drumming hearts

 

White noise shrieks from storm's propellers

Cut to kill crystals shred sky

Branch of maple two feet thick

twists, then gives up the ghost

Defeated like ship ripped by iceberg

Sinks into vulvafied drift of snow

Rocks with violence of storm

 

Pre-sap runs despite the season

Moistened layers of wilted leaves part

Protruding roots splayed beneath towering trunk

quiver as treetop succumbs to tempest

Sweet sighs of submission

shiveringly swept away

as phalanx scintillates through

 

White noise subsides to quieter hue

Recedes to low hum of freezer

Trees cease throbbing as sanity returns

Tuck branches back into their pants

From cubbyhole safety the living peer out

Await distant stars' pseudo-warmth

to rekindle the marrow of their bones

 

 

c) C. Butler 1998