Catastrophe Poem by Jo Anna Bella Bennerson

Could there be…are there any survivors?
Must target the roving bands of liars, thieves, loiterers.
What phenomenon garnered such abject devastation?
What ungodly creature dismembered God’s own creation?

Ravenous rivers raging, onerous oceans oscillating,
malicious mountains moving, dangerous dams deteriorating.
Stalwart walls crumbling, bruised lips swollen,
tired eyes blackened, ardent spirits broken.

Who can survive this? If only
I had another wish….even if the damage weren’t enough,
There’s disease now, there’s hunger –
everything is blessed with a curse!

Catastrophe - hurricane, typhoon, hardened lava,
tornado, gale force winds, tsunami, flooded areas,
Nauseous pillars, clouds of smoke,
frozen terrain; dying memories, crippled hope.

Heartwarming homes once stock full of love
stuck beneath acres of grudging mud.
Cherished temples honoring gifts from above,
floating; splintered in the muck of the flood.

Collapsing lungs, choked off by reeking fumes.
Battered arms, hustling to earth/unearth tombs.
Rescue squads lost, wandering aimlessly without a clue.
Hangers-on; praying, grieving, expecting whom?

One day Troy, the Philippines, Louisiana, Mt. Vesuvius,
one day, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands, Florida, Honduras.
Entrapment, middle passage, slavery,
confinement, loss lineage….*HUMANITY! *

How do I start over?
Is there enough fresh water to cleanse my wounds?
Where do I start, to put it all back together?
Who is this eternal name, throughout the ages, called Noah?

Catastrophe. What a coy, sensuous term
to express how our lives have been overturned.
What discipline, what inlay of strategy/ systems
will rescue me from the land of the condemned?

So like the life spent loving him,
So like the hurricane thrashed the light within.
So like the flood wrestled with the wind,
So like the tornado triumphs in sin.
So like the avalanche crushed my heart,
So like the volcano burned away every spark.
So like the typhoon ripped my vessel apart,
So like he scurried away so my demise could start.

Catastrophe.
So much loss, untold misery, forever agony…
All because - I chose… to love somebody.
How did the world turn on me?