There is an old myth I got into my head a long time ago
About how a sandstorm whipped into West Texas
on the day I was born
I don’t really know how true it is
If my mom is to believed
the storm was not that remarkable
but as she was preoccupied in a delivery room
for more than a few hours that day
I tend to take her interpretation with a grain
(it couldn’t be that giving birth for the third time
made a sandstorm pale by comparison)
What better credibility can one’s own genesis get
than being heralded in by the wind and the earth?
Maybe this is why I feel so at home with severe weather
Maybe this is why I want to be outside in the springtime
when the air gets thick with a lukewarm stillness
clouds mount
sky turns peach
sky turns green
sky turns the alarming color of a deep bruise
But for better or worse, I’m not alarmed
And I have to fight a mighty urge to go out and greet it
Because maybe I brought it here
Like a pilgrimage of remembrance
it makes its way back to me
Don’t misunderstand:
I don’t think I’m the center of any universe
But perhaps this storm and I are old friends
and maybe it heralded in a few others in its time
and it now has lots of friends it’s come to see
I could wonder why a storm would have any such attachments to people
But I can well imagine that storms aren’t as choosey about their friends as I am
One Creature is as interesting to it as another
Maybe the storm’s a complete asshole
Bent on nothing but wreaking havoc on our churches, our airports,
our trailer parks
but I doubt it
Were it one to process and respond to complaints
it might point out that it received none
not ‘til we started covering the ground
(and I mean covering)
with all our shit
Maybe it just comes back to check in occasionally
Bringing with it whatever elements it meets along the way
Just to remind me
You were part of this from the start
And you still are
To this you all return
From the dust storm you came, and to the dust storm you will go... right?
ReplyDeleteGreat poem.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make a blog now. It's been a long time coming. See you in the comments of my first post in years I hope :) peace.