A Hurricane & Its People
It happened just like this —
we had a hurricane
and then a flood
and both were termed
“100 year events”
which means no one
around now had ever
seen anything like this before —
not the road workers who would
have to rebuild all the roads
not the town officials who had to walk
in the muck and seem like they were officiating
none of the people standing there destitute
none of the woods where we lived had any idea either
it just parted with the waves, trees went away, and
the day and the night time roared
our bodies still went to sleep
our bodies still got up
the sun shone again
the river slowly but surely subsided
some houses were gone forever
hundreds of thousands of trees vanished
roads to get us places were gone
bicycles came out
you could walk but our woods neighbors
insisted on driving, and one time we came
home on our bicycles and caught a straight course
on what was once the road but it now was a river
bed of dry rock and rubble and mistreatment
and it seemed like every neighbor
at the same time was trying
to drive on this old road memory as
a river bed, with the flooded river receded
and it was the largest traffic jam we’d ever seen
and will probably ever see out here in the woods
since percentages say it won’t happen again until 100 years
naturally
it will take that long to get this image
out of my memory
II.
And another time after that hurricane and flood
we were hiking along the river on our land
to have a look around, to see what was out of place
and we found a campsite tucked away
as if trying to hide
built there by neighborhood boys
old enough to build something nice out of stone
and old enough to ask permission to build it on our land
except they didn’t
they just took the land over
made their campsite
had their friends over
built a big fire and drank with
their friends and enjoyed themselves
when we found the campsite it looked
like something out of a King Arthur time
well placed stones in a ring and some built into
chairs like thrones — someone had put a great deal
of thought into the sacred site — it would take
savvy to move them off and put the stones away
this had to happen, we don’t want fires on our land
or drinking
or partying
we want the land as land
beautifully devoid of man
growing leaves, lichen, and solitude
but for the time being we knew the young men
needed a place for counsel, a place to prove themselves
as victors and survivors after the hurricane, and a party
now and then is good for this
so we let time pass, through winter
until spring, and then we spoke to
the young men’s mother, almost a knot
in shape, walk and disposition
she wanted nothing to do with our ideas
for our own land, she saw nothing wrong
with her children out of her house and freely
distributed to our land and their campsite while
regaining her own place in her own house
so things became unfortunate
we broke apart the campsite ourselves
dealt with the young men and all that ugly
further worse with the mother, never mind
the majority who live on our road, siding
against us and believing people should be
able to do as they wish
except of course when you wish to do it to them
overnight the world had become rotten
or to be kinder — confused
and still it snowed
apple trees blossomed
gardens grew
birds sang
—————————
Bob Arnold
Heaven Lake
Longhouse 2018
photograph ~
Flooded Green River at the
Eunice Williams Covered Bridge
Greenfield, MA.
2011
