09/11/04 4:20 a.m.
How does one prepare to loose their home
and everything they own
everything they know
for the third time?
Ivan could take all that is mine.
Red Bull at 2:00 a.m.
get to Walmart before the crowd
tomorrow
sleep
tomorrow
Tears reflecting my town
rightside up
then
upside down
as Elton John sings about a candle in the
wind.
Even as I feel all that could be
distant images
of a downed princess
the grand wedding
Wills and Harry
all the photographs
flashes of Diana set my sadness free
To wander the streets
when others sleep
our last night
of false
normalcy.
On this sacred American Day
I wait for the hurricane
to come our way
even the governor
is asking us to pray.
And all I can do
is sit in front of the tube
waiting for
the 5:00 a.m. update
hoping the cone of inclusion
will move.
Relatives tuning into our state
begging us to leave
as if I could get
the sea out of me
by testing my fate.
How can we prepare
to stare at a FEMA issued tent wall
without an air conditioner
without our only car?
I want to hold out my hand
and say,
"STOP, go out to sea!"
but this mighty hurricane
won't possible listen to me.
So I'll pack up this place
put it in another space
and wait
for this worst nightmare to begin
knowing deep inside
we will survive this destructive wind
again.
To Ivan bearing down on the West Coast of Florida.
