Hurricane

LIFE HAPPENING

HURRICANE

The day was hollow and the salmon sky

Stretched taut above a silent palm,

And the staring bay was a green glass eye.

The city sucked her breath against the calm,

And the wind whistled between

Her teeth and she beat her burnished breast.

And Death heard, and his wings whirred, and his spleen

Shivered to her cry, and his chest

Rumbled and his feet struck storm.

He fastened his mouth upon her mouth

And found it sick and warm.

His mad sweat cleaved her drouth,

And his passion pierced and drank

Her anguish, and they tossed

The sea to terror, and the rank

Blood clotted on the wind and lost

Its banners in the earth. And Death was wan

And satiate. His drunken flight

Boomed down the broken aisles of dawn.

The city stretched her throat and wept,

And life crawled in her womb and she was torn

With terrible beauty, and passionate pity crept

Under her broken breasts, her shattered scorn...

And courage was born.