Tornadoes

To live through

A tornado

Is a terrifying thing

Indeed!

Over the years

I was told tornados sound

Like a freight train

Rolling down the tracks

Straight for you!

So

When I realized

What was coming for

My family and I

It made it

That much more

Terrifying

Than anything

I could have ever imagined!

For

The hand of death was close

And

Only moving closer

A violent deafening mown

With

An underlying sound

Of

Trees snapping

Power lines

Whipping wildly in the wind

Rain and darkness

A blinding wall of power

Inching closer

And

Closer

But

What I remember most

From that time

So long ago

Was holding

My child in my arm

My wife by the hand

And fleeing

Into the howling shadows

Of the night

Then

The next morning

Pumping gas barefoot

No shirt

40 degrees

In the drizzling rain

But

Being thankful

We all were alive!

From my book, When The Cedars Shade Your Grave