Xenia, Ohio Tornado, Apr.4,1974
Heard it on the news, several hours distance
The tornado touched down.
Blew away the pond in the park.
The ducks were gone.
Threw a bus on the school.
Kids screaming inside.
The neighborhood leveled
Like the swing of a scythe.
Nothing was what it was.
Everything was rubble.
My childhood too was
Blown away.
The places I knew were
No more.
No where to go back to…
The path that led from there to here.
Time has a way, twistered minutes wrapped
Around a telephone pole…
The line is cut, with no way or why or how
To call home or even
Get help.
Note: Xenia, Ohio, a small town near Dayton and the boyhood home of the poet, made national headlines when it was devastated by a tornado on April 4,1974.
(Previously published in Three Smiles, Dec.2000)
Reviews
No reviews yet.