THEY SAID THERE WOULD BE A TORNADO

The sirens sounded hours ago.
People glued to their televisions.
Should we go, should we stay?
What is it that we should do?

Then across the living room screens,
And outside aloud the megaphones,
The admonition to evacuate;
Mandatory evacuation, they groaned.

A neighborhood in chaos;
Doors slamming shut and swinging open.
Each house loads their most valuable possessions;
Buckling their children down tightly in their cars.
They pull out of their homes wondering if they will ever come back.
One by one out they go.

But no, not me.
All throughout the years,
I've heard their spurious warnings,
I've heard their unfounded words of caution.

All throughout the years,
They've put baseless fear into our hearts.
Aggrandizing every little sprinkle that falls from the sky.
It can be only so many times
Before their jaded credibility is denied entirely.

I can no longer heed their warnings,
Their voice is dull to me.
I will be fine right here, in my home, just as I always have been.
I refuse to take part in this media inspired exhibition.

But louder and louder
Is this noise I cannot ignore.
And I turn and look behind me,
And now, now do I see the fear manifested.
A mass of confusion from the sky down to the streets,
Eating up house after house
And headed straight towards me;
It's too late now.

A fool I'll be called,
As they discover my body.
They'll mock and they'll shrug, they'll say,
'He was the one we tried to help.
But never would he accept it,
For it was us he feared'.