HURRICANE October 9th to 18th, 2017

Ophelia flames a warning
over the skies of Europe
– that her kind will come again to beat
their greatbat wings to tear trees from their roots
lift carsroofshouses
tossing them aside their owners
running hitherlythitherly
like disturbed rats in a nest
– that beneath more storms clawedfeet
the writhing seas
(hell-hounds grown huge with meltwater’s grief)
will gnaw the beaches hurl themselves at seawalls
break through to gorge on the land
guzzle chew and spew

Rising from her cave in the Azores
windward wings the ocean
drench-lashes lonely boats with a downpour
of anguish while her furious breath
fans forest fires in Spain and Portugal,
blowing their earthburn stench
to Devonshire
whipping up their ash with one flick
of her scaly tail to paint a last-days omen-sky
of gleaminggold spuncopper
a bloodorange sun over London
while the goldendust of the Sahara
falls with the silence-of-snow