Remembering Noah

It's been raining a lot this month. We had the wettest June in 51 years, according to the weather people. About two weeks ago, 12 inches of rain fell in just 48 hours, inspiring me to set a personal rainy day record -- 8 hours using the wet vac in our suddenly flooded basement storeroom. I'd never even turned the wet vac on before the afternoon when massive thunderstorms prompted me to walk downstairs and "just check". To my horror, I found standing puddles of water already in the storeroom, and the casement window looked like an aquarium: rainwater was two thirds up the windowpane and still rising. Water squirted through the window sill like some kind of bizarre wall fountain spraying onto the rivulets streaming from under the baseboard. As the deluge continued outdoors, I struggled to sop up water with dozens of towels before I remembered the wet vac outside in our detached garage, and braved the lightening and sheets of rain to drag it indoors.

Global warming, climate change, ozone layer depletion, over crowding, over fishing, overdevelopment.....these are among the complaints of environmentalists who warn of impending disaster. In my own way, I've been a life-long Greenie, and I believe that Mother Earth is suffering from a severe people infestation. My feeling is that some day, perhaps even the days in which we are now living, Nature will decide to take matters in her own hands. It won't be the first time, after all.



REMEMBERING NOAH

The heavens sobbed again last night;
rain torrents fled from barking thunder
and vicious lightning scorched the path
of laments falling from the skies,
as if Nature had only just learned
of long abuse by careless mankind
and, distraught, cried disillusionment
while reciting her loud recriminations.

A chaotic wind flailed weeping trees.
They rocked like women in wild despair.

Three nights and days has Nature raged,
pausing only to fill her lungs
before resuming her watery tirade.

Is this what Noah heard?

We too should listen with awe and fear
of what She will do
when She realizes all.