August 2024 - I Am the Storm

August is sun and heat. It is vegetation, sere-edged and crisp underfoot; and it is fruit nearing ripeness on the tree.  And sometimes, often with little warning, it is the punch and wonder of a late-summer thunder storm.

I Am the Storm

by Catherine Weber

The air is still.

No roo-roo-room of the bullfrog,

No drone or bellow. No caw.

I wait on the steps as the weather turns.

Now, I am the storm.

I am the raindrops pelting the ground,

I am the thunder and the rage

of all that has come before.

So we sit in the webbed lawn chairs

sheltering from the onslaught, waiting it out.

Working through a litter of thoughts,

treading to the other side of the storm.

Ghosts arrive, reminding us how we got here.

The wash of loss, a shroud of bitter sadness,

a rush of kindness, and blurry hope.

Finally, the sun arrives

and we walk the path home, still

sorting out what comes next.

Catherine Weber is an award-winning storyteller (3X Moth StorySLAM winner), poet, visual artist, community organizer, and marketing executive. In 2017 she founded Art on the Trails, a juried art exhibition and poetry program in Southborough, MA. Catherine is also owner of Southborough Free Art Gallery, a tiny gallery at the end of her driveway. Learn more at catherinemweber.com.