Storm-born
October and you are floating in the soup of me and I am
floating in the soup of DC summer stretched thin.
According to the weather underground, humidity ranges
from muggy to oppressive–never veering
into scientific “miserable.”
2005—year of hurricanes. The Atlantic churning
endlessly—Arlene, Cindy, Dennis, just a prelude
to Katrina and Rita’s category fives. Little Tammy,
losing ground as she crawled ashore, hardly seemed worth noting
as she dumped her inches—seven, eight–turning the bedroom gray,
sending me to bed.
Who would have guessed the pressure sinking
from 30.05 to 29.6 in hours, would knock
on the waiting door and whisper:
“It’s time now. Come out.”
This year, a study: Hurricanes may trigger
early labor due to stress, healthcare overload. But maybe
it's coincidence. Still, the midwives in the unit knew--
storms blow through, all the water’s broken.
floating in the soup of DC summer stretched thin.
According to the weather underground, humidity ranges
from muggy to oppressive–never veering
into scientific “miserable.”
2005—year of hurricanes. The Atlantic churning
endlessly—Arlene, Cindy, Dennis, just a prelude
to Katrina and Rita’s category fives. Little Tammy,
losing ground as she crawled ashore, hardly seemed worth noting
as she dumped her inches—seven, eight–turning the bedroom gray,
sending me to bed.
Who would have guessed the pressure sinking
from 30.05 to 29.6 in hours, would knock
on the waiting door and whisper:
“It’s time now. Come out.”
This year, a study: Hurricanes may trigger
early labor due to stress, healthcare overload. But maybe
it's coincidence. Still, the midwives in the unit knew--
storms blow through, all the water’s broken.
September 2024
Patricia Davis-Muffett (she/her) holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota. Her chapbook, Alchemy of Yeast and Tears, was published in spring 2023. Her work has won honors including Best of the Net 2022 nomination, inclusion in Best New Poets 2022, and second place in the 2022 Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest (selected by Marge Piercy), and appears in Atlanta Review, Whale Road Review, Calyx and About Place, among others.
Art: Kelly Cressio-Moeller, Childhood Faultlines. Mixed media: acrylic, ink, paper, mica flakes on basswood panel, 2023.