Our Lady of the Hurricane

By Jackleen Holton Hookway

 

wears knifepoint stilettos

that she fashioned

from the skin of water

moccasins that slide

underneath the dark slip

of brackish floodwater

when she takes them off

and wades in up to her neck

as the twin snakes slither ahead

guiding her through

a maze of underwater suburbs

where she shatters windows

frees entire families

from waterlogged houses

gathers dogs and cats

in a Hermès alligator bag

slung over one sculpted arm

as the reptiles slide onto her feet again

and she springs to the surface

a crowd gathering to bear witness

she steps ashore

the floodplain her runway

a mother and baby in tow

yes she’s come to float us

out of this misery

of biblical proportions

to deliver us to a new riverbank

the arms of our grateful children

our saved neighbors

encircling us

 


Jackleen Holton Hookway’s poems have appeared in American Literary Review, Bellingham Review, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, North American Review, Poet Lore, Rattle, Rise Up Review, and are forthcoming in the anthology Not My President: The Anthology of Dissent (Thoughtcrime Press).

Photo credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via a Creative Commons license.