After the Hurricane

Nature went crazy after Hurricane Bob.

Salt-shocked leaves flamed red in July

against sky preternaturally blue. Pogies flew

then rained silver onto the beach,

bees grew confused and swarmed in the sea. 

Marsh murmur hushed

in nights without light or sound, thick with black

but for Perseids and fireflies. 

When the well failed, we forgot to be careful

and clean, we bathed with the salt

and sand in our hair, we went down

after dark to swim in a bay

swollen with tide, moonskimmed,

glittering green fire—

phosphorescent plankton—and the stars

streaked from the sky and were drowned.

“After the Hurricane” first appeared in Cider Press Review, Vol. 9, Spring 2008.