Bottled water, batteries
Gathered in survival needs
Bathtubs filled
Ice chests chilled
Prayer fields filled
On our knees in the sand
Bags and shovels in each hand
We gathered our band
The planned and unplanned
We stacked and we stocked
Days and nights ’round the clock
Boxing, bagging tick-tock
Til our doors were storm rocked
Did what we could
To protect neighborhood
Houses boarded and taped
Fear filled skies greyly draped
As the light faded, then we let go
Water swelling ashore
Waves forty feet, maybe more
Rolling in miles from the sea
A startling sight
Stunned all with fright
Giant omens of force yet to be
As night time descended
Evacuations tended
Those left couldn’t imagine the worst
Sea walls went smashing
‘Neath tsunami size crashing
Walls of water rolled, roiled and reversed
Streets ran raging rivers
Drowning cars, sounding shivers
Of death throes deluged, swimming past
Transformers exploded
Green flames and eroded
Faith as we knelt stunned, aghast
Sturdy light poles bent down
Like twigs to the ground
In the wake of wild water and wind
It was as if they were bent
By hand of God sent
To flatten a world which had sinned
The rage and the wrath
Cut a Biblical swath
Sweeping what man made asunder
And in the middle of it all
Rose a clarion call
Onomatopoeia of thunder
We lived through first high tide
A nightmarish ride
With one more to go we’d survive
Then hundred mile winds conspired
To fan flames of fires
Incinerating cars, homes and lives.
Tall buildings tremored
Foundations dismembered
Sand dunes and ocean met bay
Sewers imploded
In pipes overloaded
From more than man-made strength could outweigh
Darkness doused every light
On the unfolding plight
Wrought of the second high tide
What hope we had left
Brave and bereft
This pounding had pummeled our pride
Dim dawn broke grey
On the aftermath day
In silence profound and profane
Birdsong dead in the street
We tiptoed to meet
The truth of our losses and pain
What was left were mere threads
Homes and lives torn to shreds
While we huddled in bed
Under blankets of dread
Praying it wouldn’t be so bad.
Unrecognizable world
Tatters unfurled
Fires smoke whorled
Cold breath curled
We saw it was worse than imagined.
All the sand bags were breached
While we begged and beseeched
Ships unmoored like whales beached
Shattered dreams out of reach
Scattered on lawns, streets and railroads.
Highways were smashed
Homes sewage seawater thrashed
Boardwalk broken and trashed
Structures large and small mashed
All moved like game pieces thrown off a playing board.
Wreckage created
Sand inundated
Future unstated
Areas ill fated
Bit by reckoning bit, we let go of our lives as we knew them.
Bitter cold settled in
Where to begin
Mold grew quickly within
How could we ever win
Any semblance of normalcy gone in massive destruction.
Basics all gone
Civility shorn
Marhall law born
Tendons stretched; torn
Becoming beasts of burden in brutality.
Shortages rise
As do rumors and lies
Communication glitches and dies
Lines for needs wind for miles
As people queue up for icy insanity.
The diaspora rules
While temperature cools
Like snowiest yules
In the new era schools
Of deprivation and near Neanderthal ice age living.
It’s safe shelter all seek
In the mildewy reek
Homes all lurch, limp and leak
Where we work til we’re weak
As each sewagey creek recedes, leaving ruin upon ruin.
Light of day shown
Hospitals blown
Physicians flown
Gauntlet down. thrown
Balance and health hang in the balance.
Survive this if you can
You puny human
Look and see where you began
Remember where colors ran
The playing field’s leveled, you are one.
After months of rebuild
There are many dreams killed
As we struggle, strong willed
Ever learning, new skilled
At the lessons of letting go of all.
And as time and events move on with or without me, I float on a new sea of I-don’t-know and remember these two aftermath house and soul cleansing truths:
Firstly, I have learned that my essential needs for life are:
Clean air to breathe
Clean water to drink
Safe roof overhead for shelter
And…
Kindness.
Secondly, I have learned a new mantra, applicable in all situations:
“I cannot control the ocean.”
eFlorence 
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