KATRINA THE GREAT

Frothy, mad capped waves
Angry and restless, tossed about.
An eye on the ocean without sight
Peering at miles of white sand beaches
With unbridled fury and awesome might.
People, like rats, scurrying for higher ground -
Bumper to bumper to bumper for miles:
A mad dash frozen in space and time.
Wondering what this day might bring
Or what lies ahead and what’s left behind.
Lines - endless lines of people
Infuriated and impatient - waiting in a hurry
At pumps, at toilets, cashier counters and more.
And the thought echoing ever louder -
What might the future hold in store?
As she draws near land she begins to wail
With the deafening sound of shrieking winds
Making missiles of what she might find.
Screaming at those who stayed in her path,
“Fools, you fools - have you lost your mind?”
She lifts the ocean and drives it before her.
With raging power she shoves it ashore.
An elemental force with the means to kill.
What her surging waters don’t raze
Her unrelenting fierce winds will.
Ancient oaks and pines bow low, then snap
Becoming splintered heaps like houses and dreams.
A thousand twisters make the destruction complete.
Is she nothing but a messenger of nature or God -
A force against which we’re powerless to compete?
Afterwards, TV crews make meager attempts
To capture the damage she’s wrought
As lenses focus on the devastation left behind.
Yet, they’re unable to capture the broken spirit,
Crushed heart or befuddled mind.
Droves return to mounds of what was their lives
Surveying what mere thoughts can’t grasp.
In disbelief they stagger around and wonder -
How and where does one begin to rebuild
A world so completely torn asunder?

Sam DeLoach