The Approaching Storm
Photographs -- lifelessly thin children, bellies
expanding when everything else shrinks,
to enclose the violent storms of hunger,
swirling angrily inside empty stomachs.
It starts as a small, subtle rumbling,
gray thunderclouds looming in the distance,
building angrily to protest the neglect,
advancing faster, overtaking its helpless victims.
The sky darkens, sometimes sickening green,
lightning bolts pierce the thick clouds,
sending sharp, searing pains to the surface,
burning, leaving smoldering scars, buried deep.
Rain and hail pound the innocent ground,
flooding, washing out trees and rivers,
ruining houses and fields of crops,
leaving nothing but destruction, aching void.
It rages, until all is destroyed, then fades,
numbness descending as pain subsides,
and the storm withers
to nothing but mud, debris,
ghostly photographs.
(c) 1999 Ann Lesley Hamvas
