A Deep Bite Poem by Bill Grace

Some have handled it
by setting off out of season fireworks at night,
some meticulous trimming
of shrubs about their homes
in early morning.
I paddle in the pool
I sit in my drive way
watch the small gray outside cat
watch the neighbors
watch the azul sky once a fierce moving gray
drink a dinner beer
talk to the moon
hear the garage roof struck
by an errant lawn mower rock
and realize it could have taken my eye,
230,000 is the press number that sticks.

The vision of 230,000 on crosses
crucified by conquering legions……………………………does not help
the word - ineffable…………………………………………………………does not help
the Latin phrase - mysterium tremendum …………does not help
nor does it help that Voltaire and Rousseau had it out in brilliant letters for a decade at the time of the Lisbon Earthquake over a much similar tragedy**************- - - - - - - -*it does not help.

I grieve
- - - - - so much is lost in what approaches nuclear disaster
I am relieved
- - - - - it is not my house and town destroyed II am thankful
- - - - - to have pen and dry paper to write these words.

- - - No - we are a little inland
- - - - - -it may be what saved us
- - - - - -the National Weather Service reports
- - - - - -the killer of cities
- - - - - -came within fifty miles.

The garbage truck comes.
a man from 'Heavenly Lawn Care Service'
never before seen
with a perspiration stain
down the center of his back
mows my lawn and never says a word
never asks a dime.

I wonder if it is
the most elegant post card marketing
the world has ever seen,
or was I visited
by something approaching an angel of old
who also is struggling
with God's darkest side?

Even a sent angel does not help.

What helps
is
to
help
mend
a hurricane.