(Before Landfall) – 8/18/23

By Kathy Wagenknecht

we have it all wrong
we think the weather
influences
us
but in truth
we cause the weather

case in point:
Pacific hurricanes
don’t make landfall
north of Mexico
it took the outbreak
of World War 2
for El Cordonazo
to come ashore
in California

84 years later
cataclysmic events
stir the Pacific again
Hurricane Hillary is poised
at California’s coast

she seems to have lost
her bearings
but perhaps she learned
from her tornadic cousins

she can skip
across the nation
dipping down in Arizona
Texas
Mississippi
Alabama
skipping Georgia
with its avenging angel

heading back to sea
Hillary’s course is set
her power immense
focused on a small man
in his pretend palace
who needs to learn
the wind