Joplin

The heavy air carried a strange silence

And the horizon’s blue was held askance

By the ominous forming of arcus clouds

As if time and place arrived at once - in black shrouds

Ceasing still the very moment that afternoon at 5:27.

 

While death’s long fingers betrayed heaven

And with each gruesome touch - ripped at Joplin’s face.

Leaving scarred destruction in its fetid place.

 

A lone bared tree standing

against a stark landscape

Framing the story of those who survived

and of the loved ones who could not escape.

When terror came to Joplin in the winds

of May 22^nd 2011.