ain’t together
(roaming like clouds or cellphone signals, I apologize)

anticipation
like the ketchup
rain
should come
at any moment
through
the unrelenting gray

to the west
and south
severer things have happened
and
I think
we
shall get the dregs
of it
flooding tempests
and tornados

well
it’s windy
now
though I don’t think
shelter-driven
though
of course
I could be wrong
and I’ll
be looking for
a doorframe
after all

and you be safe
unless
you be
stormchasers
then
I don’t what
to say

how about
God speed with you
and make wings
ahead
blow you the other way
when exigent
need be

coda

I’m sorry
we aren’t going through
what you go through
in Ukraine
or in Gaza
or
in parts where the same things
happen
and we don’t hear about
so much

I’m not talking about
bullets
killing or
explosions

the terror
then the thirst
and hunger
after

the infections

and the awful
draining
fear
for families

and I’m not in Philadelphia
where someone had to shoot
at Muslims
having Eid al-Fetr
at the end
of Ramadan

and I’m not everywhere
where white folk
hate the Jews
or anyone who’s not
so white
(I guess I mean
pure
ethnic white
whatever hell that means
as a thought
or an
agenda)
anyone
that is
whom we’re afraid of
as the next
majority
in number or
otherwise in power

well
I merely
started talking
about
weather
and by
implication
climate change

but
maybe
everything’s extreme
anymore

and the peace of moderation
sometimes called
the swing vote
might be desired
more than
ever
or I’ll only speak
for me
from a kind of centered place
that I hope is not
the hurricane’s
but God’s
eye

c l couch


photo by Clay LeConey on Unsplash

with at the start a reference to a TV commercial from the '70s