in the garden before the storm

I did a little gardening the day before Hurricane Sandy last fall.  The air was warm but disturbed with gusty breezes.  The maple across the street had dropped its flaming leaves and our redbud tree had begun to scatter its large yellow leaves around like little dinner plates.  The fall garden is a bit moody and messy with black seed heads, swaying tassels on the grasses, and mums covered in purple flowers sprawled over the sidewalk.  I sat on a little stool and sketched a bumble bee as he moved from flower to flower.  Bees are so serious and methodical, and completely at the mercy of the flower that attracts them.  



Hurricane Sandy 2012

In the house where we lived
on Long Beach Island
once upon a time it was so long ago 
there was a barometer 
like a dark omen on the wall
in the corner.  The needle, I'm sure, dropped
like a stone to the bottom of a well
as this storm passed over
the slender slip of an island
between sound and sea.