The ice storm begins in the heart
quietly waking its way to the outer limits of toe and finger.
Without a hat, ears soon
fear the crush of heavy cold, breathing
an act of war, breath
an air raid of snow squalls, large chunks of hail, frozen rain.
Is this the hell of the ancient Norse?
Somehow the vapor surrounding us
a napalm attack of frostbitten knives into eyeball and flesh.
A year of fire and water, tornado and hurricane,
snow bombs and whiteouts, blizzards and skin on fire,
flooding and erosion, earthquake and extinction—
Mess with me, the Goddess of Weather and Sustainability, the Earth Oya says,
and I’ll mess with you two times double.| Copyright © 2019 by Michael H. Brownstein Michael H. Brownstein’s latest volume of poetry, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else, was published by Cholla Needles Press in 2018. |
News of Hurricane Dorian's activities over the Bahamas comes to mind....
ReplyDeleteReaders shouldn't neglect that innocent word "Oya" in this poem. From Wikipedia: Ọya (Yoruba language): an orisha{*} of winds, lightning, and violent storms, death and rebirth. She is similar to the Haitian god Maman Brigitte, who is syncretised with the Catholic Saint Brigit. In Yoruba, the name Oya means "she tore." [Wikipedia]
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* Òrìṣà are the human form of the spirits (Irunmọlẹ) sent by Olodumare/Olorun/Olofi in the Yoruba traditional account of the dawn of time. The Irunmọlẹ are meant to guide creation and particularly humanity on how to live and succeed on Earth (Ayé). [Wikipedia]