Hurry, it’s coming
JG Annino
At the grocery just
up the canopy road
I backed away from
cart-jam
came home to prune
yard of potential missiles
knowing back at the store, families
wiped out beverage shelves
snatched up bubble waters,
the bottled fruit teas,
but at home, I brewed our London-tin tea bags
squeezed into that tangerines, from last week’s fruit bag
took my drink out to visit with
cherry red umbrellas
sprouted from my queen of late summer blooms
she faithfully delays her show
sweltering oceans
towering thunderheads
trip Hurricane Lilly’s
pop-up alarm
re-tinting
Dorian
gray
days
c.2019JanGodownAnnino
Category 4 torrents bring beach-combing days, potential bright spots in fraught hurricane aftertimes. This is from Carl Sandburg’s “Sand Scribblings” collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins’ sweet THE SEA IS CALLING ME, illustrated by Walter Gaffney-Kessell, c.1986.
from “Sand Scribblings”/ Carl Sandburg
Boxes on the beach are empty.
Shake ’em and the nails loosen.
They have been somewhere.
from The Sea is Calling me, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Walter Gaffney-Kessell, c. 1986.

Carl Sandburg in “THE SEA IS CALLING ME, collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Walter Gaffney-Kessell, 1986.
update of Aug. 23, 2019 “About Lee Bennett Hopkins” tribute, SIDE BY SIDE will be mailed out with pleasure to Linda M. & Amy LV.
Stay safe, dear Jan! How lovely that you can make poetry out of incoming potential disaster. Love the sound of the tea you made.
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If anyone can turn a hurricane into an opportunity to enjoy tea and find beauty it’s you, dear Jan. Stay safe and hope for good beach combing soon.
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