Floodgates
Yon foaming flood seems motionless as ice;
Its dizzy turbulence eludes the eye,
Frozen by distance.
~William Wordsworth
Torrents! Sheets of rain fell all night
At times, six to eight inches an hour
Nature’s display of destructive pow’r
And we were impotent before its might
We watched the fireworks; hunkered inside
Bolts lit the night sky as thunder boom’d
Distant rumbles announced none but doom
Rhythmic lightning flashes left us petrified…
By ten o’clock, two feet of water covered
The street in front of our one-story house
We were stunned, myself and my spouse
We stared at each other and we shuddered.
By eleven, the water was at our front door
We rushed; we gathered letters, pictures
On counters, tables; we laid our memories!
All important items we took off the floor!
In two more hours, the house was flooded
Two and a half feet of rain water inside!
We looked at each other; as I silently cried
We waded around the house, so defeated…
Then we went up the attic to stay dry
Spent the night there, and we prayed
The rain battering the roof kept us afraid
So not a wink of sleep, though we did try
By dawn, the tempest has finally ceased
As the sun rose; the water level receded
We looked around, our hopes depleted
We’re alive, yet battered by nature’s beast
We’ve lost everything except mementos
Of both our lives, of what we have built
But no use crying over milk that’s spilt
We survived! That’s what matters most!
07-02-2015
© Vic A Evora
On the night of Memorial Day May 25, 2015 – torrential rains fell in the Houston area for several hours, causing massive flooding. For the first time, a flood emergency was declared. Several neighborhoods were destroyed by the flood waters.
This poem is fictional. However, it is loosely based on a first-person account of someone I know. ~ Vic Evora
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