Navigating storm cellars
we’d crawl along floors
flattening our guts, wishing
the farmhouse stove’s warmth
had traveled with us as we
burrowed ourselves far below
rotating columns of air
its twisting, turning vacuum
leveling the barn, throwing
tractors and pick-up trucks
in four directions, setting them
down in cornfields where ripe husks
opened wide, absorbed seismic shocks,
fashioned random crop circles as we
siblings & I huddled tight atop damp dirt.
we’d crawl along floors
flattening our guts, wishing
the farmhouse stove’s warmth
had traveled with us as we
burrowed ourselves far below
rotating columns of air
its twisting, turning vacuum
leveling the barn, throwing
tractors and pick-up trucks
in four directions, setting them
down in cornfields where ripe husks
opened wide, absorbed seismic shocks,
fashioned random crop circles as we
siblings & I huddled tight atop damp dirt.
