The F-4, Frostburg, MD

The F-4, Frostburg, MD

A tension unexplained runs through me,

As I watch the animals and birds skittering about

In a way rarely seen.

Even my dog seems to feel it…

She shakes and stays nearby.

I scan the horizon…

Towering clouds still of whites and ecrus,

But that could change in moments…

There is a calm in the air that is not calm.

I shudder.

I know what I feel…

I have lived through these storms before,

But these are the mountains,

And supposedly it doesn’t happen here.

My instincts and the dog’s say differently.

I go to prepare supplies…

Where are my loved ones?

I worry…timing is going to be close…

I check the sky again and continue to prepare.

Oh, please return home, I pray for my men.

Just as the storm begins, they return…

Quickly take these things, and let’s go to the basement—

NOW!!!

Rain is light, then it stops…

A stillness beyond still…

“Whatever is going to happen will happen now.

I love you,” I tell the guys and the dog.

The whirling, horizontal rain-wind comes

Up the hill just to one side of us…

So close…feet away…

The noise so loud,

The wind fierce and chill,

It seems forever in a few moments…

Then it’s over.

The moon comes out.

Animals begin to make noises again.

The neighbors flash lights at us, and we respond.

We are alive…alive…

Now to help all of us recover, rebuild,

And go on…

Humbler and grateful.

Now it’s a year later

And the scars of that evening linger

In our community and around us,

But we’re alive…

And still grateful…

And watching the skies.

ã2 June 1999, Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw.