Strange Storm Described for March 3rd Sunday Write (Feb., Meantime, Having Been Lost in the Shuffle)

March 20, 2024 in Lagniappes, Poetry, Writing
Tags: Bloomington Writers Guild, Frogs, Moons, Pizzas, Reptiles, Shana Ritter, Storms, The Writing Life, Third Sunday Write, Weather

So the time comes again for the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Third Sunday Write,” with me as usual a few days late. At the least (see January 23, et al., but also below for a “missing” last month). With four prompts supplied by moderator Shana Ritter, I chose the third, to “Describe a Storm” — an active one, seemingly popular with other writers as well, though mine perhaps just a tiny bit different. Thus:

A Whirlwind of Frogs

Yes, another whirlwind of frogs greeted Wednesday,
green hopping as it hit,
the ground teeming with frogs’ legs
(still attached to the amphibians, of course,
this is weather, not dinner)
but messy underfoot as one steps on them.
Take care you don’t slip!
But it could be worse, these changes wrought
by a warming climate;
in California they have rains of sharks —
it was on the TV —
but luckily less deadly than it might seem,
they falling through air which they cannot breathe
forcing a passiveness on them.
Here though I fear summer,
the long-range forecast predicting, first, turtles
(snappers among them!)
but then alligators.

February’s entry, in the meantime, somehow got lost in the shuffle (I didn’t get to it, in fact, until February 29, a strange day in itself and one dominated by sales for Femmes Fatales and another reprint for New Orleanian vampiresses), but was no great shakes. Still, for the sake of completeness, here’s what you (probably) didn’t miss:

(3. When I Looked Up)

When I looked up,
Wow! a pizza-moon
round and orange
filling the sky!
“Family size,” no doubt.
Until, bat-like, black clouds
nibbled the edges —
politely, in sections —
but nevertheless the light
growing dimmer.
Gold going to darkness.