23 September News Storeom

I wonder if I shall ever love again
without thinking
the lady must not be
named/take after a hellish storm.

Down in the Gulf,
Rita angrily churns.
Maximum sustained winds of 135 mph
and 20-foot storm surge.
How many more?
How many more?

In New Orleans
The hell that was
the Ninth Ward
loses another levee
Three weeks after Katrina.
Water, more glorious,
God given water.
How high's the water Papa?
waist-deep and rising...

A bus carrying elderly evacuees
Catches fire on
a crowded, stalled highway.
Cruel irony.
Life supporting
oxygen tanks burn so well.
How many more?
How many more?

2 million residents
must evacuate.
A crazy twist;
highways out of Houston,
can't accommodate
a million cars
Stuck in
Miles and tens of miles
of gridlock.

Once again the National Guard
is providing relief,
This time the other
life giving/taking liquid
gasoline.

On Friday,
Louisiana's death toll
from Hurricane Katrina
rose to 841.
How many more?
How many more?