Scream-soaked sky of sodden grey
heralded her dance
as cyclone made her wilfull way
across the night entranced.
Her smile laid bare with sharpened teeth
she shredded leaf and tree
then spat her meal with wild disdain
into the seething sea.
The darkest hours of night were hers,
she shrieked her awful warning
until at last with mocking smile
fell into the arms of morning.
And in the still, bruised, chastened day
her parting gifts were seen;
destruction born of brutal dance-
drowned bodies on the beach.
1989 Bombay cyclone.
http://www.blenza.com/linkies/links.php?owner=dversepoets&postid=16Sep2013
heralded her dance
as cyclone made her wilfull way
across the night entranced.
Her smile laid bare with sharpened teeth
she shredded leaf and tree
then spat her meal with wild disdain
into the seething sea.
The darkest hours of night were hers,
she shrieked her awful warning
until at last with mocking smile
fell into the arms of morning.
And in the still, bruised, chastened day
her parting gifts were seen;
destruction born of brutal dance-
drowned bodies on the beach.
1989 Bombay cyclone.
http://www.blenza.com/linkies/links.php?owner=dversepoets&postid=16Sep2013
the devastation of being in a cyclone's path - you tell it like a true poet, the language convincing... the form too
ReplyDeleteugh...today in science class we watched footage of the tsunami in japan shot be people on the scene...it was terribly frightening to see nature run amuck...the bodies in the end are sobering....
ReplyDelete"until she fell with mocking smile
ReplyDeleteinto the arms of morning."
Your phrases bit and sting.