Rebecca Foust

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.

Rebecca Foust

"Last Bison Gone" first appeared in Cider Press Review, Vol. 9, Spring 2008.

First posted on January 23, 2010 4:01 PM