102521d

clouds: blacker by the minute
action: rolling in from the west
me: striding home, making tracks
storm: catching me
as I step across the rails
visibility: poor
me: drenched
me again: squelching across kitchen tiles
clothes: peeled off
in my wallet: sodden bits of paper
a few pieces of plastic
me again: I should have
driven today

050221d

10 years and 3 days

when will the paper shut up

about the storm?

reminded every day

we drive through my neighborhood

050221c

 

spring overcast

doesn't keep out the heat

I felt a drop

040921

 

official death toll

search and rescue saw

so many bodies

 

 

 

042711, perhaps they didn't count the unidentifiable

 

040721b

 

pink snow

insulation settles

after the storm

 

 

 

042711, tornado

040521b

 

storm destrots 

cheap Chinese place 

relocates farther

042711, twister

040221c

 

 hole in the roof

and ornaments in the street

Georgia too, maybe

042711 storm

040221b

 

On Jupiter, it turns out, tornadoes are typically several hundred miles wide. Pity about the colony.

040221

 

 I toured Alberta

after the storm had come and gone

but I didn't recognize the place 

there wasn't much left at all

hey ho, way to go, tornado

042711; thank you, Pretenders

040121d

 

car wash drug dealers

blown away with the rest

gone to Oz

042711 tornado

040121c

 

city could plant

wildflowers in grassy lots

houses 10 years gone

 

 

 

 

042711 tornado

040121b

 

one block N

was obliterated

one S untouched

 

 

 

042711 tornado

033021b

 

I helped others

who also lost their homes

now I cut grass

Robert does a superb job. 042711.

033021

 

found a car

in my back yard

no idea whose

 

 

 

 

Friend, 27-Apr. 11 tornado

032921c

 

woke up

in the yard next door

my house was gone

 

 

 

 

Caregiver, 27-Apr. 11 tornado

032921b

 

took the roof clean off;

when the dog rose,

Louise tackled her;

if the funnel hadn't moved off in time,

they'd both have learned to fly

 

 

 

 

Neighbors, Apr. 27, 2011

032921

 

marching out 

like a lamb

twister and shout

042711

032821d

 

Shopping wherever they have stout walk-in freezers. Because, summer, 1981, Lawrence KS--across from the abruptly silenced radio station, nothing else was left.

032821c

 

12-16

one year, before Christmas

some lost homes and lives

032821

 

stridency of the inws app

 

all day sending us

in the boom flash

to the safe room

remembering 4-27-11*

transom and all our trees

gone

 

Thursday miracle

but the wolf blew Ohatchee 

to kindling

coulda been us again

 

 

*Millions remember the day of hundreds of tornadoes.