<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;" class="">The Storm </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Times; min-height: 23px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">1</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Against the stone breakwater,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Only an ominous lapping,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">While the wind whines overhead,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Coming down from the mountain,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Whistling between the arbors, the winding terraces;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A thin whine of wires, a rattling and flapping of leaves,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And the small street-lamp swinging and slamming against</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the lamp pole.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Where have the people gone?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">There is one light on the mountain.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">2</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Along the sea-wall, a steady sloshing of the swell,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The waves not yet high, but even,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Coming closer and closer upon each other;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A fine fume of rain driving in from the sea,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Riddling the sand, like a wide spray of buckshot,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The wind from the sea and the wind from the mountain contending,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Flicking the foam from the whitecaps straight upward into the darkness.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A time to go home!--</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And a child's dirty shift billows upward out of an alley,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A cat runs from the wind as we do,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Between the whitening trees, up Santa Lucia,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Where the heavy door unlocks,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And our breath comes more easy--</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Then a crack of thunder, and the black rain runs over us, over</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The flat-roofed houses, coming down in gusts, beating</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The walls, the slatted windows, driving</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The last watcher indoors, moving the cardplayers closer</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">To their cards, their anisette.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">3</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We creep to our bed, and its straw mattress.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We wait; we listen.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The storm lulls off, then redoubles,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Bending the trees half-way down to the ground,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Shaking loose the last wizened oranges in the orchard,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Flattening the limber carnations.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A spider eases himself down from a swaying light-bulb,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Running over the coverlet, down under the iron bedstead.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Water roars into the cistern.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We lie closer on the gritty pillow,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Breathing heavily, hoping--</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">For the great last leap of the wave over the breakwater,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The flat boom on the beach of the towering sea-swell,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The sudden shudder as the jutting sea-cliff collapses,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And the hurricane drives the dead straw into the living pine-tree.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Times; min-height: 23px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Times;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Theodore Roethke</div></body></html>