<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; color: rgb(29, 33, 41); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">The New Dark Ages</p><div class=""><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 6px 0px; color: rgb(29, 33, 41); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Thunderstorms stir me up—<br class="">the stillness right before</p><div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; color: rgb(29, 33, 41); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px;" class="">the first close tremor,<br class="">the pond shivering</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class="">at the height of summer,<br class="">the field full-blown, going to seed.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class="">But this storm scares me.<br class="">A foreign climate occupies the land.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class="">When nature was God, in my childhood,<br class="">I wasn't afraid. Snow buried the town,</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class="">the river flooded it,<br class="">lightning set the woods on fire.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class="">In months the damage bandaged itself<br class="">with mosses and ferns.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class="">This storm comes from another<br class="">world, here by mistake,</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class="">its rain blistering the birch leaves.<br class="">Has it been weaponized?</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class="">No one knows what to expect<br class="">of a storm with human parents.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class=""><br class=""></p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Chase Twichell</p></div></body></html>