A.W. Books & Poetry

In the still sullen darkness, a single porch light blinks

Shuddering, shaking, silence

As if it was signaling in an unknown language “God help us all”

The wooden windows faced the sky, scavenging the clouds, searching for the moon

But the clouds covered the celestial abyss with a thick gray blanket, suffocating everything beneath it

Silence

There were no words

No words that anyone could say, nothing was there to do, we waited

Most of them were in hiding now

Under quivering roofs clad in red clay

I, on the other hand, was walking

The house seemed to stare as I walked beside it as if my foolish footsteps shook the ground hard enough to remind it of its fear

The light carried on, contorting, convulsing, crying out into the still sullen night

I kept walking, barefoot, blistering the soil as I went

It would not be more than a few hours now. She was coming. We all knew it.

I walked for her, I walked as her, we walked together

Her winds would whip the white air, wither, and wipe out all of us

I was walking

The land creeped around us as if settling itself for its demise, crafting its own grave

And night creatures cowered in the corners of the dark, gnawing at the trunks of tribulant trees, begging them for their unfortunate shelter

She raged on some distances away, but not too far. Halfheartedly, yes stiff and sound.

Tearing, screaming, scaring, scowling

I walked on.

-Annalise Wellman