Child of the Wind, Part Two

I am a child of the Wind.

The storm stoked that night,

Battering the house, blasting

Blowing

Suddenly, the quiet before the storm

Eerie calm, a silenced wind,

Soundlessness surrounded us

The swirling winds turned into a tornado

Ferociously fixing its fury

On our town.

Slamming the path of the unfinished street behind us,

a dug ditch soon to be a paved street

**

My cat was hiding and I searched while

Mom yelled at me to get

Below into the basement,

Wind whistled through the oven fan hood

Its screeching, creaking and rattling noise convinced me.

Startled, and scared, I ran down steep steps

Leaving my cat to ride it out from his hiding spot

Water ran down the concrete interior walls of the basement

Tornado country: Leave a window open;

the house won’t implode,

And a brother had done so.

Relentlessly, the storm raged.

Fatigue and fear gathered us until

a quiet descended, the calm after the storm.

Ascending to ground level,

The storm-savaged street showcased

Trees bent in half or torn out by the roots.

I am a child of the Wind.

****

This happened many years ago when I was in high school.

Our home damage was a bent and doubled in-half garage door, that had to be cut down to get the auto out. The cat was okay (I knew you would ask). Trees were twisted and destroyed. Some businesses were flattened; others were open for business but with no power for days. Some buildings only had the large display windows shattered.

The tornadoes weren’t Category 5 back then.